Saturday, January 31, 2009
Who do You Watch? - Crass
"Where Next Columbus?" by Crass
Anothers hope, anothers game,
Anothers loss, anothers gain,
Anothers lies, anothers truth,
Anothers doubt, anothers proof.
Anothers left, anothers right,
Anothers peace, anothers fight,
Anothers name, anothers aim,
Anothers fall, anothers fame.
Anothers pride, anothers shame,
Anothers love, anothers pain,
Anothers hope, anothers game,
Anothers loss, anothers gain.
Anothers lies, anothers truth,
Anothers doubt, anothers proof.
Anothers left, anothers right,
Anothers peace, anothers fight.
Marx had an idea from the confusion of his head,
Then there were a thousand more waiting to be led.
The books are sold, the quotes are bought,
You learn them well and then you're caught.
Anothers left, anothers right,
Anothers peace, anothers fight.
Mussolini had an idea from the confusion of his heart,
Then there were a thousand more waiting to play their part.
The stage was set, the costumes worn
And anothers empire of destruction born.
Anothers name, anothers aim,
Anothers fall, anothers fame.
Jung had an idea from the confusion of his dream,
Then there were a thousand more waiting to be seen.
You're not yourself the theory says,
But I can help, your complex pays.
Anothers hope, anothers game,
Anothers loss, anothers gain.
Sartre had an idea from the confusion of his brain,
Then there were a thousand more indulging in his pain,
Revelling in isolation and existential choice;
Can you trully be alone when you use anothers voice?
Anothers lies, anothers truth,
Anothers doubt, anothers proof.
The idea born in someones mind
Is nurtured by a thousand blind
Anonymous beings, vacuous souls,
Do you fear the confusion, your lack of control?
You lift your arm to write a name,
So caught up in the identity game.
Who do you see? Who do you watch?
Who's your leader? Which is your flock?
Who do you watch? Who do you watch?
Who do you watch? Who do you watch?
Who do you watch? Who do you watch?
Who do you watch? Who do you watch?
Who's your leader? Which is your flock?
Who's your leader? Which is your flock?
Who's your leader? Which is your flock?
Who's your leader? Which is your flock?
Einstein had an idea from the confusion of his knowledge,
Then there were a thousand more turning to advantage.
They realised that their god was dead,
So they reclaimed power through the bomb instead.
Anothers code, anothers brain,
They'll shower us all in deadly rain,
Jesus had an idea from the confusion of his soul,
Then there were a thousand more waiting to take control.
The guilt is sold, forgiveness bought,
The cross is there as your reward.
Anothers love, anothers pain,
Anothers pride, anothers shame.
Do you watch at a distance from the side you have chosen?
Whose answers serve you best? Who'll save you from confusion?
Who will leave you an exit and a comfortable cover?
Who will take you so near their edge, but never drop you over?
Who do you watch? Who do you watch?
Who do you watch? Who do you watch?
Who do you watch? Who do you watch?
Who do you watch? Who do you watch?
Who do you watch? Who do you watch?
Who do you watch? Who do you watch?
Who do you watch? Who do you watch?
Who do you watch? Who do you watch?
Friday, January 30, 2009
Putin's address to WEF Nations at Davos, 28/1/09
[cartoonsbydeano]
Full speech at: http://www.weforum.org/pdf/AM_2009/OpeningAddress_VladimirPutin.pdf
"...I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the economic crisis could aggravate the current negative trends in global politics.
The world has lately come to face an unheard-of surge of violence and other aggressive actions, such as Georgia’s adventurous sortie in the Caucasus, recent terrorist attacks in India, and escalation of violence in Gaza Strip. Although not apparently linked directly, these developments still have common features.
First of all, I am referring to the existing international organisations’ inability to provide any constructive solutions to regional conflicts, or any effective proposals for interethnic and interstate settlement. Multilateral political mechanisms have proved as ineffective as global financial and economic regulators.
Frankly speaking, we all know that provoking military and political instability, regional and other conflicts is a helpful means of distracting the public from growing social and economic problems. Such attempts cannot be ruled out, unfortunately.
To prevent this scenario, we need to improve the system of international relations, making it more effective, safe and stable.
There are a lot of important issues on the global agenda in which most countries have shared interests. These include anti-crisis policies, joint efforts to reform international financial institutions, to improve regulatory mechanisms, ensure energy security and mitigate the global food crisis, which is an extremely pressing issue today.
Russia is willing to contribute to dealing with international priority issues. We expect all our partners in Europe, Asia and America, including the new US administration, to show interest in further constructive cooperation in dealing with all these issues and more. We wish the new team success.
* * *
Ladies and gentlemen,
The international community is facing a host of extremely complicated problems, which might seem overpowering at times. But, a journey of thousand miles begins with a single step, as the proverb goes.
We must seek foothold relying on the moral values that have ensured the progress of our civilisation. Integrity and hard work, responsibility and self-confidence will eventually lead us to success.
We should not despair. This crisis can and must be fought, also by pooling our intellectual, moral and material resources.
This kind of consolidation of effort is impossible without mutual trust, not only between business operators, but primarily between nations.
Therefore, finding this mutual trust is a key goal we should concentrate on now.
Trust and solidarity are key to overcoming the current problems and avoiding more shocks, to reaching prosperity and welfare in this new century.
Thank you."
Full speech at: http://www.weforum.org/pdf/AM_2009/OpeningAddress_VladimirPutin.pdf
Thursday, January 29, 2009
GCSE Metaphors
These are supposedly metaphors from actual GCSE essays:
His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a tumble dryer.
McMurphy fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a paper bag filled with vegetable soup.
Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.
Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.
The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the full stop after the Dr.
On a Dr Pepper can.
The thunder was ominous sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.
The red brick wall was the colour of a brick-red crayon.
Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long it had rusted shut.
The door had been forced, as forced as the dialogue during the interview portion of Family Fortunes.
Shots rang out, as shots are want to do.
The plan was simple, like my brother Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work. (I think this was written by Gary Neville!! )
The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
Oh, Jason, take me!" she panted, her breasts heaving like a student on 31p-a-pint night.
He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter."
She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
It came down the stairs looking very much like something no one had ever seen before.
The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a lamppost.
The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free cashpoint.
It was a working class tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with their power tools.
He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a dustcart reversing.
She was as easy as the Daily Star crossword.
She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature British beef.
She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.
Her voice had that tense, grating quality, like a first-generation
Thermal paper fax machine that needed a band tightened.
It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.
His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a tumble dryer.
McMurphy fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a paper bag filled with vegetable soup.
Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.
Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.
The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the full stop after the Dr.
On a Dr Pepper can.
The thunder was ominous sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.
The red brick wall was the colour of a brick-red crayon.
Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long it had rusted shut.
The door had been forced, as forced as the dialogue during the interview portion of Family Fortunes.
Shots rang out, as shots are want to do.
The plan was simple, like my brother Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work. (I think this was written by Gary Neville!! )
The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
Oh, Jason, take me!" she panted, her breasts heaving like a student on 31p-a-pint night.
He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter."
She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
It came down the stairs looking very much like something no one had ever seen before.
The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a lamppost.
The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free cashpoint.
It was a working class tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with their power tools.
He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a dustcart reversing.
She was as easy as the Daily Star crossword.
She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature British beef.
She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.
Her voice had that tense, grating quality, like a first-generation
Thermal paper fax machine that needed a band tightened.
It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Symposium by Paul Muldoon
Symposium
You can bring a horse to water but you can't make it hold
its nose to the grindstone and hunt with the hounds.
Every dog has a stitch in time. Two heads? You've been sold
one good turn. One good turn deserves a bird in the hand.
A bird in the hand is better than no bread.
To have your cake is to pay Paul.
Make hay while you can still hit the nail on the head.
For want of a nail the sky might fall.
People in glass houses can't see the wood
for the new broom. Rome wasn't built between two stools.
Empty vessels wait for no man.
A hair of the dog is a friend indeed.
There's no fool like the fool
who's shot his bolt. There's no smoke after the horse is gone.
- Paul Muldoon
(originally from The New Yorker , October 2, 1995)
Paul Muldoon's "Symposium"
You can bring a horse to water but you can't make it hold
its nose to the grindstone and hunt with the hounds.
Every dog has a stitch in time. Two heads? You've been sold
one good turn. One good turn deserves a bird in the hand.
A bird in the hand is better than no bread.
To have your cake is to pay Paul.
Make hay while you can still hit the nail on the head.
For want of a nail the sky might fall.
People in glass houses can't see the wood
for the new broom. Rome wasn't built between two stools.
Empty vessels wait for no man.
A hair of the dog is a friend indeed.
There's no fool like the fool
who's shot his bolt. There's no smoke after the horse is gone.
- Paul Muldoon
(originally from The New Yorker , October 2, 1995)
Paul Muldoon's "Symposium"
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Just like that: Tommy Cooper One-Liners.
Two fat blokes in a pub, one says to the other "your round." The other one says "so are you, you fat bastard!"
Two cannibals eating a clown. One says to the other "Does this taste funny to you?"
Two prostitutes standing on a street corner. One says to the other, "have you ever been picked up by the fuzz?" The other replies, "No, but I've been swung around by the tits!"
Police arrested two kids yesterday, one was drinking battery acid, the other was eating fireworks. They charged one and let the other one off.
An 83-year old woman decided that she'd seen and done everything, and the time had come to depart from this world. After considering various methods of doing away with herself she came to a conclusion. The quickest and surest way would be to shoot herself through the heart. The trouble was, she wasn't certain about exactly where her heart was, so she phoned her doctor and asked him. He told her that her heart was located two inches below her left nipple. She shot herself in the left kneecap.
A blind bloke walks into a shop with a guide dog. He picks the dog up and starts swinging it around his head. Alarmed, a shop assistant calls out: 'Can I help, sir?' 'No thanks,' says the blind bloke. 'Just looking.'
Patient : Doctor, you've got to help me. Every night I get the urge to go downstairs and stick my d ** k into the biscuit tin. Do you know what's wrong with me? Doctor : Yes ... 'you're f ***** g crackers.'
"Cos it's strange, isn't it. You stand in the middle of a library and go 'Aaaaaaagghhhh!' and everyone just stares at you. But you do the same thing on an aeroplane, and everyone joins in”.
"He said 'I'm going to chop off the bottom of one of your trouser legs and put it in a library.' I thought 'That's a turn-up for the books."
"And the back of his anorak was leaping up and down, and people were chucking money to him. I said 'Do you earn a living doing that?' He said 'Yes, this, this my lively-hood.'
"So I was getting into my car, and this bloke says to me "Can you give me a lift?" I said "Sure, you look great, the world's your oyster, go for it!”
"You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today. They left a little note on the windscreen, it said 'Parking Fine.' So that was nice."
"So I went down my local ice-cream shop, and said I want to buy an ice-cream'. He said ‘Hundreds & thousands?' I said 'We'll start with one.' He said 'Knickerbocker glory?' I said 'I do get a certain amount of freedom in these trousers, yes.'
I went to Millets and said 'I want to buy a tent.' He said 'To camp?' I said (butchly) 'Sorry, I want to buy a tent.’ I said 'I also want to buy a caravan.' He said 'Camper?' I said (campily) 'Make your mind up.'
So I went to the dentist. He said "Say Aaah." I said "Why?" He said "My dog's died."
"Now, most dentist's chairs go up and down, don't they? The one I was in went back and forwards. I thought 'This is unusual'. And the dentist said to me 'Mr Cooper, get out of the filing cabinet.'"
"So I got home, and the phone was ringing. I picked it up, and said 'Who's speaking please?' And a voice said 'You are.'"
"So I rang up my local swimming baths. I said 'Is that the local swimming baths?' He said 'It depends where you're calling from.'"
"So I rang up a local building firm, I said 'I want a skip outside my house.' He said 'I'm not stopping you.'
"Apparently, 1 in 5 people in the world are Chinese. And there are 5 people in my family, so it must be one of them. It's either my mum or my dad. Or my older brother Colin. Or my younger brother Ho-Cha-Chu. But I think it's Colin."
"So I was in my car, and I was driving along, and my boss rang up, and he said 'You've been promoted.' And I swerved. And then he rang up a second time and said "You've been promoted again.' And I swerved again. He rang up a third time and said 'You're managing director.'And I went into a tree. And a policeman came up and said 'What happened to you?' I said 'I careered off the road.'
Monday, January 26, 2009
Who's your Mommy?!
The following are all replies that women are supposed to have put on British Child Support Agency forms in the section for listing father's details:
1. Regarding the identity of the father of my twins, child A was fathered by [name removed]. I am unsure as to the identity of the father of child B, but I believe that he was conceived on the same night.
2. I am unsure as to the identity of the father of my child as I was being sick out of a window when taken unexpectedly from behind. I can provide you with a list of names of men that I think were at the party if this helps.
3. I do not know the name of the father of my little girl. She was conceived at a party [address and date given] where I had unprotected sex with a man I met that night. I do remember that the sex
was so good that I fainted. If you do Manage to track down the father can you send me his phone number? Thanks.
4. I don't know the identity of the father of my daughter. He drives a BMW that now has a hole made by my stiletto in One of the door panels. Perhaps you can contact BMW service stations in this area and see if he's had it replaced.
5. I have never had sex with a man. I am awaiting a letter from Pope confirming that my son's conception was immaculate and that he is Christ risen again.
6. I cannot tell you the name of child A's dad as he informs me that to do so would blow his cover and that would have cataclysmic implications for the British economy. I am torn between doing right by you and right by the country. Please advise.
7. I do not know who the father of my child was as all squaddies look the same to me. I can confirm that he was a Royal Green Jacket.
8. [name given] is the father of child A. If you do catch up with him can you ask him what he did with my AC/DC CDs?
9. From the dates it seems that my daughter was conceived at Euro Disney maybe it really is the Magic Kingdom.
10. So much about that night is a blur. The only thing that I remember for sure is Delia Smith did a programme about eggs earlier in the evening. If I'd have stayed in and watched more TV rather than going to the party at [address given] mine might have remained unfertilised.
1. Regarding the identity of the father of my twins, child A was fathered by [name removed]. I am unsure as to the identity of the father of child B, but I believe that he was conceived on the same night.
2. I am unsure as to the identity of the father of my child as I was being sick out of a window when taken unexpectedly from behind. I can provide you with a list of names of men that I think were at the party if this helps.
3. I do not know the name of the father of my little girl. She was conceived at a party [address and date given] where I had unprotected sex with a man I met that night. I do remember that the sex
was so good that I fainted. If you do Manage to track down the father can you send me his phone number? Thanks.
4. I don't know the identity of the father of my daughter. He drives a BMW that now has a hole made by my stiletto in One of the door panels. Perhaps you can contact BMW service stations in this area and see if he's had it replaced.
5. I have never had sex with a man. I am awaiting a letter from Pope confirming that my son's conception was immaculate and that he is Christ risen again.
6. I cannot tell you the name of child A's dad as he informs me that to do so would blow his cover and that would have cataclysmic implications for the British economy. I am torn between doing right by you and right by the country. Please advise.
7. I do not know who the father of my child was as all squaddies look the same to me. I can confirm that he was a Royal Green Jacket.
8. [name given] is the father of child A. If you do catch up with him can you ask him what he did with my AC/DC CDs?
9. From the dates it seems that my daughter was conceived at Euro Disney maybe it really is the Magic Kingdom.
10. So much about that night is a blur. The only thing that I remember for sure is Delia Smith did a programme about eggs earlier in the evening. If I'd have stayed in and watched more TV rather than going to the party at [address given] mine might have remained unfertilised.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
The Youngest Turned into a Killer - Morrissey
YouTube - Morrissey - "The Youngest Was The Most Loved"
- The youngest was the most loved
The youngest was the shielded
We kept him from the world's glare
And he turned into a killer
Retroussé nose
Turned up and mischievous
Forget-me-not eyes that cried if we ever left his side
There is no such thing in life as normal
There is no such thing in life as normal
The youngest was the most loved
The youngest was the cherub
A small boy from a poor house
Who turned into a killer
A blush it rose if he had to say ‘hello’
A lopsided grin strained to keep the shyness in
There is no such thing in life as normal
There is no such thing in life as normal
The youngest was the most loved
The youngest was the cherub
The luck was all before him
With a lovely wife beside him
The youngest was the most loved
The youngest was the cherub
We kept him from the world's glare
And he turned into a killer
There is no such thing in life as normal
There is no such thing in life as normal
- Morrissey
Saturday, January 24, 2009
More curious GCSE answers...
A compilation of actual student GCSE answers...
1. Ancient Egypt was inhabited by mummies and they all wrote in hydraulics. They lived in the Sarah Dessert and travelled by Camelot. The climate of the Sarah is such that the inhabitants have to live elsewhere.
2. The Bible is full of interesting caricatures. In the first book of the Bible, Guinessis, Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. One of their children, Cain, asked, "Am I my brother's son?"
3. Moses led the Hebrew slaves to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread which is bread made without any ingredients. Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandments. He died before he ever reached Canada.
4. Solomon had three hundred wives and seven hundred porcupines.
5. The Greeks were a highly sculptured people, and without them we wouldn't have history. The Greeks also had myths. A myth is a female moth.
6. Actually, Homer was not written by Homer but by another man of that name.
7. Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock. After his death, his career suffered a dramatic decline.
8. In the Olympic games, Greeks ran races, jumped, hurled the biscuits, and threw the java.
9. Eventually, the Romans conquered the Greeks. History calls people Romans because they never stayed in one place for very long.
10. Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March murdered him because they thought he was going to be made king. Dying, he gasped out: "Tee hee, Brutus."
11. Nero was a cruel tyranny who would torture his subjects by playing the fiddle to them.
12. Joan of Arc was burnt to a steak and was canonized by Bernard Shaw. Finally Magna Carta provided that no man should be hanged twice for the same offence.
13. In midevil times most people were alliterate. The greatest writer of the futile ages was Chaucer, who wrote many poems and verses and also wrote literature.
14. Another story was William Tell, who shot an arrow through an apple while standing on his son's head.
15. Queen Elizabeth was the "Virgin Queen." As a queen she was a success. When she exposed herself before her troops they all shouted "hurrah."
16. It was an age of great inventions and discoveries. Gutenberg invented removable type and the Bible. Another important invention was the circulation of blood. Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical figure because he invented cigarettes and started smoking. And Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world with a 100 foot clipper.
17. The greatest writer of the Renaissance was William Shakespeare. He was born in the year 1564, supposedly on his birthday. He never made much money and is famous only because of his plays. He wrote tragedies, comedies, and hysterectomies, all in Islamic pentameter. Romeo and Juliet are an example of a heroic couplet. Romeo's last wish was to be laid by Juliet.
18. Writing at the same time as Shakespeare was Miguel Cervantes. He wrote Donkey Hote. The next great author was John Milton. Milton wrote Paradise Lost. Then his wife died and he wrote Paradise Regained.
19. During the Renaissance America began. Christopher Columbus was a great navigator who discovered America while cursing about the Atlantic.
His ships were called the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Fe.
20. Later, the Pilgrims crossed the ocean, and this was called Pilgrim's Progress. The winter of 1620 was a hard one for the settlers. Many people died and many babies were born. Captain John Smith was responsible for all this.
21. One of the causes of the Revolutionary War was the English put tacks in their tea. Also, the colonists would send their parcels through the post without stamps. Finally the colonists won the War and no longer had to pay for taxis. Delegates from the original 13 states formed the Contented Congress. Thomas Jefferson, a Virgin, and Benjamin Franklin were two singers of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin discovered electricity by rubbing two cats backwards and declared, "A horse divided against itself cannot stand.". Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead.
22. Soon the Constitution of the United States was adopted to secure domestic hostility. Under the constitution the people enjoyed the right to keep bare arms.
23. Abraham Lincoln became America's greatest Precedent. Lincoln's mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves by signing the Emasculation Proclamation. On the night of April 14,1865, Lincoln went to the theatre and got shot in his seat by one of the actors in a moving picture show. The believed assinator was John Wilkes Booth, a supposedly insane actor. This ruined Booth's career.
24. Meanwhile in Europe, the enlightenment was a reasonable time.
Voltaire invented electricity and also wrote a book called Candy.
25. Gravity was invented by Issac Walton. It is chiefly noticeable in the autumn when the apples are falling off the trees.
26. Johann Bach wrote a great many musical compositions and had a large number of children. In between he practiced on an old spinster which he kept up in his attic. Bach died from 1750 to the present. Bach was the most famous composer in the world and so was Handel. Handel was half German half Italian and half English. He was very large.
27. Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.
28. The French Revolution was accomplished before it happened and catapulted into Napoleon. Napoleon wanted an heir to inherit his power, but since Josephine was a baroness, she couldn't have any children.
29. The sun never set on the British Empire because the British Empire is In the East and the sun sets in the West.
30. Queen Victoria was the longest queen. She sat on a thorn for 63 years. She was a moral woman who practiced virtue. Her death was the final event which ended her reign.
31. The nineteenth century was a time of a great many thoughts and inventions. People stopped reproducing by hand and started reproducing by machine. The invention of the steamboat caused a network of rivers to spring up. Cyrus McCormick invented the McCormick raper, which did the work of a hundred men.
32. Louis Pasteur discovered a cure for rabbis. Charles Darwin was a naturalist who wrote the Organ of the Species. Madman Curie discovered radio. And Karl Marx became one of the Marx brothers.
33. The First World War, caused by the assignation of the Arch-Duck by an anahist, ushered in a new error in the anals of human history
1. Ancient Egypt was inhabited by mummies and they all wrote in hydraulics. They lived in the Sarah Dessert and travelled by Camelot. The climate of the Sarah is such that the inhabitants have to live elsewhere.
2. The Bible is full of interesting caricatures. In the first book of the Bible, Guinessis, Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. One of their children, Cain, asked, "Am I my brother's son?"
3. Moses led the Hebrew slaves to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread which is bread made without any ingredients. Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandments. He died before he ever reached Canada.
4. Solomon had three hundred wives and seven hundred porcupines.
5. The Greeks were a highly sculptured people, and without them we wouldn't have history. The Greeks also had myths. A myth is a female moth.
6. Actually, Homer was not written by Homer but by another man of that name.
7. Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock. After his death, his career suffered a dramatic decline.
8. In the Olympic games, Greeks ran races, jumped, hurled the biscuits, and threw the java.
9. Eventually, the Romans conquered the Greeks. History calls people Romans because they never stayed in one place for very long.
10. Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March murdered him because they thought he was going to be made king. Dying, he gasped out: "Tee hee, Brutus."
11. Nero was a cruel tyranny who would torture his subjects by playing the fiddle to them.
12. Joan of Arc was burnt to a steak and was canonized by Bernard Shaw. Finally Magna Carta provided that no man should be hanged twice for the same offence.
13. In midevil times most people were alliterate. The greatest writer of the futile ages was Chaucer, who wrote many poems and verses and also wrote literature.
14. Another story was William Tell, who shot an arrow through an apple while standing on his son's head.
15. Queen Elizabeth was the "Virgin Queen." As a queen she was a success. When she exposed herself before her troops they all shouted "hurrah."
16. It was an age of great inventions and discoveries. Gutenberg invented removable type and the Bible. Another important invention was the circulation of blood. Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical figure because he invented cigarettes and started smoking. And Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world with a 100 foot clipper.
17. The greatest writer of the Renaissance was William Shakespeare. He was born in the year 1564, supposedly on his birthday. He never made much money and is famous only because of his plays. He wrote tragedies, comedies, and hysterectomies, all in Islamic pentameter. Romeo and Juliet are an example of a heroic couplet. Romeo's last wish was to be laid by Juliet.
18. Writing at the same time as Shakespeare was Miguel Cervantes. He wrote Donkey Hote. The next great author was John Milton. Milton wrote Paradise Lost. Then his wife died and he wrote Paradise Regained.
19. During the Renaissance America began. Christopher Columbus was a great navigator who discovered America while cursing about the Atlantic.
His ships were called the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Fe.
20. Later, the Pilgrims crossed the ocean, and this was called Pilgrim's Progress. The winter of 1620 was a hard one for the settlers. Many people died and many babies were born. Captain John Smith was responsible for all this.
21. One of the causes of the Revolutionary War was the English put tacks in their tea. Also, the colonists would send their parcels through the post without stamps. Finally the colonists won the War and no longer had to pay for taxis. Delegates from the original 13 states formed the Contented Congress. Thomas Jefferson, a Virgin, and Benjamin Franklin were two singers of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin discovered electricity by rubbing two cats backwards and declared, "A horse divided against itself cannot stand.". Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead.
22. Soon the Constitution of the United States was adopted to secure domestic hostility. Under the constitution the people enjoyed the right to keep bare arms.
23. Abraham Lincoln became America's greatest Precedent. Lincoln's mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves by signing the Emasculation Proclamation. On the night of April 14,1865, Lincoln went to the theatre and got shot in his seat by one of the actors in a moving picture show. The believed assinator was John Wilkes Booth, a supposedly insane actor. This ruined Booth's career.
24. Meanwhile in Europe, the enlightenment was a reasonable time.
Voltaire invented electricity and also wrote a book called Candy.
25. Gravity was invented by Issac Walton. It is chiefly noticeable in the autumn when the apples are falling off the trees.
26. Johann Bach wrote a great many musical compositions and had a large number of children. In between he practiced on an old spinster which he kept up in his attic. Bach died from 1750 to the present. Bach was the most famous composer in the world and so was Handel. Handel was half German half Italian and half English. He was very large.
27. Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.
28. The French Revolution was accomplished before it happened and catapulted into Napoleon. Napoleon wanted an heir to inherit his power, but since Josephine was a baroness, she couldn't have any children.
29. The sun never set on the British Empire because the British Empire is In the East and the sun sets in the West.
30. Queen Victoria was the longest queen. She sat on a thorn for 63 years. She was a moral woman who practiced virtue. Her death was the final event which ended her reign.
31. The nineteenth century was a time of a great many thoughts and inventions. People stopped reproducing by hand and started reproducing by machine. The invention of the steamboat caused a network of rivers to spring up. Cyrus McCormick invented the McCormick raper, which did the work of a hundred men.
32. Louis Pasteur discovered a cure for rabbis. Charles Darwin was a naturalist who wrote the Organ of the Species. Madman Curie discovered radio. And Karl Marx became one of the Marx brothers.
33. The First World War, caused by the assignation of the Arch-Duck by an anahist, ushered in a new error in the anals of human history
Friday, January 23, 2009
A Short Story: A Drinking Man Part II
...
The little girl evidently needed some extra coaching to focus on her plate rather than anyone else’s. She must have been no more than three years old and was an expressive little madam, with a sound-bite, delivered with a grin, for anyone who paid her attention. Still she was making slow but steady progress with her spoon. I estimated that the boy was about six years old. He was an obliging soldier, commandeering his meal without encouragement but with a certain buccaneering gusto. His mum and dad had supplemented their meal with a pot of tea and water, but I noticed him hold up a bottle for his father to open. Fork laid on plate, he seemed to be looking forward to this elixir to the exclusion of all else.
I thought I saw him murmuring to himself, as if saying: Yummy! - a whole bottle of fizzy orange for himself, to savour with dinner. His little toddler sister toiled away tediously next to him, with a plastic cup of water in front of her.
Feeling like a voyeuristic outsider, I watched, through my peripheral vision, as the youngster’s dad unscrewed the lid off the bottle for him. He lifted it to his lips and swallowed a few mouthfuls. Ahhh yes! he seemed to sigh: absolutely perfect, sweet and bubbly and cool. He set the bottle back on the table, picked up the cap, and tried to re-seal it. He made a couple of concentrated attempts, but it would not catch. I was becoming fascinated, growing tense with anticipation to see how he would cope. Instead of completing the venture, he left the cap carefully balanced on top of the bottle, and he returned to the food, and the dimly intelligible chatter of the adults.
I bent my head, silently chuckling. In a few moments though, I spotted his little hand groping for the bottle again, ready for another scrumptious draught of orange. Past my fingers now pressed to my cheek, I sneakily followed his movements, before hearing his sister brazenly yell: “Gimme some!”
With her mop of blonde curls and cherubim features, she could afford to expect interest, and certainly did, cutely beaming around at everyone in a manic kind of way.
“Oh, aw right!” I could just about decipher this junior soft-drinks connoisseur limply reply. Though obviously well-behaved, my guess was that it was “greedy guts!” he was exclaiming in his head, annoyed at her talent to oust him from centre-stage, although the children’s fondness for eachother was plain enough.
Then, as I busied myself with arranging the cutlery laid out for me, I saw out of the corner of my eye, his mother pour some of his juice into a cup for the girl. She only half-filled it - plenty left. When the bottle was restored to him, he imbibed heartily again, but was still unsuccessful with the lid. Meanwhile, as his sister sipped, suddenly she lost her grip, letting the cup slip and the orange fall over her clothes and onto the floor. I was startled; I had to consciously restrain myself from leaning over. I looked away, hoping that harmony could be restored. Salome was nowhere in sight. I overheard his mother groan. It sounded like a muffled “Oh dear!” I surreptitiously turned back, and she was searching for a serviette to wipe up the sticky liquid.
I stifled a laugh as the little boy shook his head slowly, letting escape a barely audible “tsk tsk tsk!”; as if impatient on witnessing this scene for the umpteenth time; as if to say “babies really are stupid!” As I feigned a yawn, I made out his chubby arm stretch protectively in the direction of his fluid treasure. They were a delightful pair!
I tinkered idly with the cutlery. The young defender scooped up the remains of his dinner and, with a junior passion, seized his bottle again. Just then he caught my intent sidelong glance and I was exposed, momentarily frozen. An instant later, both of us were shocked into dismay at the spectacle of his precious drink wobbling on the side of the table. In his rush to straighten it, it toppled over the edge and his beloved fizzy orange gushed out, lost forever in a popping puddle on the floor. I hung my head, mercifully forgotten about in the unfolding catastrophe. By the time he rescued it a few seconds later, only a small quantity sluiced around the bottom of the bottle. His young brow creased in a frustrated frown; he crossed his arms as though bolstering himself against the pain of loss, and I sensed his struggle about whether or not to cry, as he tried to assess any compensation to be prised out of this nasty drama. I felt very sympathetic, quite desolate in fact, and guilty about my part in this tragedy. I sat crumpled and vulnerable in my chair; no redress to offer my victim.
Then his mam and dad were consoling him – “It’s OK, darling; we can buy one of those huge litre bottles for you later in the shops. And look, you still have some left there. Don’t let it go to waste”.
With distinct relief, I cautiously spied the small body relaxing as a shaky smile dispelled the clouded stressed features. So it wasn’t the end of the world – thank goodness! I myself too felt like a weight was being lifted from me and instinctively I hugged myself. I could breathe more easily now; the flow of felicity was coming back. The boy was regaining his companionable contentment but then he paused in thought. As if to ward off any further trespassing on his favourite property which was rapidly being drained away without his consent, he seemed to give the matter his full, undivided attention, and so decided to dispose of the stuff to its rightful owner once and for all. Internally bursting to applaud the valiant champion, I rejoiced to observe him carry the bottle to his mouth and, in three or four wholesome swigs, empty it neat. Bravo! Using the back of his hand to dab a glistening chin, his eyes met mine again. This time I smiled broadly at him, and spontaneously formed a thumbs-up sign, which he acknowledged with a shy happy nod before re-entering the conversational embrace.
Then there was Salome approaching demurely with a tray holding our meals. I leaned over to pull back her chair and make space for the plates. I had an appetite now, and was even in celebratory form. Despite doctor’s orders, and Salome’s conscientious ways, it was surely in order on this special occasion to take a risk, to request a toast, for survival, even victory, in the jungle of life? How about a glass of house red, dear, just one…?
- goinghome
The little girl evidently needed some extra coaching to focus on her plate rather than anyone else’s. She must have been no more than three years old and was an expressive little madam, with a sound-bite, delivered with a grin, for anyone who paid her attention. Still she was making slow but steady progress with her spoon. I estimated that the boy was about six years old. He was an obliging soldier, commandeering his meal without encouragement but with a certain buccaneering gusto. His mum and dad had supplemented their meal with a pot of tea and water, but I noticed him hold up a bottle for his father to open. Fork laid on plate, he seemed to be looking forward to this elixir to the exclusion of all else.
I thought I saw him murmuring to himself, as if saying: Yummy! - a whole bottle of fizzy orange for himself, to savour with dinner. His little toddler sister toiled away tediously next to him, with a plastic cup of water in front of her.
Feeling like a voyeuristic outsider, I watched, through my peripheral vision, as the youngster’s dad unscrewed the lid off the bottle for him. He lifted it to his lips and swallowed a few mouthfuls. Ahhh yes! he seemed to sigh: absolutely perfect, sweet and bubbly and cool. He set the bottle back on the table, picked up the cap, and tried to re-seal it. He made a couple of concentrated attempts, but it would not catch. I was becoming fascinated, growing tense with anticipation to see how he would cope. Instead of completing the venture, he left the cap carefully balanced on top of the bottle, and he returned to the food, and the dimly intelligible chatter of the adults.
I bent my head, silently chuckling. In a few moments though, I spotted his little hand groping for the bottle again, ready for another scrumptious draught of orange. Past my fingers now pressed to my cheek, I sneakily followed his movements, before hearing his sister brazenly yell: “Gimme some!”
With her mop of blonde curls and cherubim features, she could afford to expect interest, and certainly did, cutely beaming around at everyone in a manic kind of way.
“Oh, aw right!” I could just about decipher this junior soft-drinks connoisseur limply reply. Though obviously well-behaved, my guess was that it was “greedy guts!” he was exclaiming in his head, annoyed at her talent to oust him from centre-stage, although the children’s fondness for eachother was plain enough.
Then, as I busied myself with arranging the cutlery laid out for me, I saw out of the corner of my eye, his mother pour some of his juice into a cup for the girl. She only half-filled it - plenty left. When the bottle was restored to him, he imbibed heartily again, but was still unsuccessful with the lid. Meanwhile, as his sister sipped, suddenly she lost her grip, letting the cup slip and the orange fall over her clothes and onto the floor. I was startled; I had to consciously restrain myself from leaning over. I looked away, hoping that harmony could be restored. Salome was nowhere in sight. I overheard his mother groan. It sounded like a muffled “Oh dear!” I surreptitiously turned back, and she was searching for a serviette to wipe up the sticky liquid.
I stifled a laugh as the little boy shook his head slowly, letting escape a barely audible “tsk tsk tsk!”; as if impatient on witnessing this scene for the umpteenth time; as if to say “babies really are stupid!” As I feigned a yawn, I made out his chubby arm stretch protectively in the direction of his fluid treasure. They were a delightful pair!
I tinkered idly with the cutlery. The young defender scooped up the remains of his dinner and, with a junior passion, seized his bottle again. Just then he caught my intent sidelong glance and I was exposed, momentarily frozen. An instant later, both of us were shocked into dismay at the spectacle of his precious drink wobbling on the side of the table. In his rush to straighten it, it toppled over the edge and his beloved fizzy orange gushed out, lost forever in a popping puddle on the floor. I hung my head, mercifully forgotten about in the unfolding catastrophe. By the time he rescued it a few seconds later, only a small quantity sluiced around the bottom of the bottle. His young brow creased in a frustrated frown; he crossed his arms as though bolstering himself against the pain of loss, and I sensed his struggle about whether or not to cry, as he tried to assess any compensation to be prised out of this nasty drama. I felt very sympathetic, quite desolate in fact, and guilty about my part in this tragedy. I sat crumpled and vulnerable in my chair; no redress to offer my victim.
Then his mam and dad were consoling him – “It’s OK, darling; we can buy one of those huge litre bottles for you later in the shops. And look, you still have some left there. Don’t let it go to waste”.
With distinct relief, I cautiously spied the small body relaxing as a shaky smile dispelled the clouded stressed features. So it wasn’t the end of the world – thank goodness! I myself too felt like a weight was being lifted from me and instinctively I hugged myself. I could breathe more easily now; the flow of felicity was coming back. The boy was regaining his companionable contentment but then he paused in thought. As if to ward off any further trespassing on his favourite property which was rapidly being drained away without his consent, he seemed to give the matter his full, undivided attention, and so decided to dispose of the stuff to its rightful owner once and for all. Internally bursting to applaud the valiant champion, I rejoiced to observe him carry the bottle to his mouth and, in three or four wholesome swigs, empty it neat. Bravo! Using the back of his hand to dab a glistening chin, his eyes met mine again. This time I smiled broadly at him, and spontaneously formed a thumbs-up sign, which he acknowledged with a shy happy nod before re-entering the conversational embrace.
Then there was Salome approaching demurely with a tray holding our meals. I leaned over to pull back her chair and make space for the plates. I had an appetite now, and was even in celebratory form. Despite doctor’s orders, and Salome’s conscientious ways, it was surely in order on this special occasion to take a risk, to request a toast, for survival, even victory, in the jungle of life? How about a glass of house red, dear, just one…?
- goinghome
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Short Story: A Drinking Man, Part I
A DRINKING MAN.
Heedless of my grumblings, Salome dragged me out for the second time this month. I held her arm unsteadily, walking stick flapping in the other hand, as the escalator in this frenetic city store carried us to where the restaurant was situated. She had taken charge of the shopping, with my new pair of shoes; the other excuse, besides fresh air, to extract me from my small artisan house in a historic corner of Dublin. She’s a smart, strong young woman, my care assistant, with a winning sense of humour and an abundance of competencies. Doing chores for enfeebled folk like myself affords her enough money to pursue her social science studies. I’ve also detected, as she dutifully watches over me, how the heads turn in public. With her pert posture and mysterious aura, she’s a pretty picture all right. I melt into the background; - me, who used to be quite the bombshell! Humbly I indulge the inquisitive admiring gazes looking past me, and, despite my often crotchety demands, submit eventually to her intuitive leadership. No complaints there.
In the restaurant the queue was already gathering for lunch. We located a table and Salome told me to sit down and wait while she wound her way towards the busy counter to obtain the food. I complied without protest, welcoming the sanctuary from the impatient pandemonium of energetic bodies going places endlessly.
I settled myself as comfortably as I could, trying to ignore the stiffness and usual aching in my joints. The malaise had started with old sports injuries which had left their mark, according to the doctors’ diagnoses. I had been a bright light on the rugby field, way back. Pain-killers dulled the throb of pain when it preyed on me. Other prescriptions though, such as cutting back on rich food, had met with less obedience from me, which eventually wreaked revenge in an attack of gout. Under Salome’s command, I had become more meager in my diet and relatively resigned to toeing the line for however long I had left. This morning she had interrupted my preparation of a document for the director of the company from which I’d retired some years ago. They kept me on the books as a consultant for occasional project work which proved a source of stimulation and distraction from the banality of my increasingly limited existence.
I looked around at the people tucking into their meals and chatting. Ahead were a couple of dapper chaps and a young lady in a chic suit, who, I guessed, were legal eagles like myself. They were absorbed in an intense debate, and it reminded me of the ideals I had brought to the profession, the keenness for administering justice and doing my bit for a fairly ordered society. Wryly I shook my head at the recollection and how those intentions were gradually whittled away by the experience and practice.
The job did however ensure me a hefty salary, which I would, sooner or later, be leaving to my relatives. I hadn’t heard from any of them for months. My ex-wife of course would expect her share too. We had been married for ten years and spent perhaps three years of those together, due to our business commitments. She had then been a ravishing and controversial actress, never stuck for a role, or flatterers. I was not short of temptations myself, in the glamorous circles we moved in. It was simply not a surprise when, during a rare honest conversation, we both owned up to the fraying façade and decided to take our fresh chances apart. Now she lives with her third husband, in relative contentment according to the annual Christmas card I receive from her. I never tried for domestic bliss again; the bachelor’s life fitted my schedule better.
To my right was an elderly couple, slowly digesting their food, hunched and cautious as though grateful for this respite. They had probably collected their pensions today, sneaking a weekly treat before ambling on to a cheap supermarket for groceries. Next to them huddled a pack of old girls, chirpily exchanging gossip. I often wondered how people could settle for so little. The older I got, it seemed the less I understood about the human animal.
I straightened myself in the chair, feet flat on floor. I took a deep breath which cleared away my ruminative mood. It was then I took stock of the group to my left, a young man and woman with two small children, shrouded in their own special atmosphere. They looked a little out-of-place, as though this was not a familiar setting; probably up from the country. They were courteous and considerate in their smooth interactions, and I was tickled by their charming dynamic. The presumed parents were multi-tasking, feeding themselves, and overseeing their children taking adequate sustenance despite the novel diversions away from home. These children were endearing, showing a natural trust and enthusiasm while retaining good manners. They exuded an air of uncalculated organic presence, as if using this time to nourish themselves was in fact the most important thing in the whole world->->->
- goinghome
Heedless of my grumblings, Salome dragged me out for the second time this month. I held her arm unsteadily, walking stick flapping in the other hand, as the escalator in this frenetic city store carried us to where the restaurant was situated. She had taken charge of the shopping, with my new pair of shoes; the other excuse, besides fresh air, to extract me from my small artisan house in a historic corner of Dublin. She’s a smart, strong young woman, my care assistant, with a winning sense of humour and an abundance of competencies. Doing chores for enfeebled folk like myself affords her enough money to pursue her social science studies. I’ve also detected, as she dutifully watches over me, how the heads turn in public. With her pert posture and mysterious aura, she’s a pretty picture all right. I melt into the background; - me, who used to be quite the bombshell! Humbly I indulge the inquisitive admiring gazes looking past me, and, despite my often crotchety demands, submit eventually to her intuitive leadership. No complaints there.
In the restaurant the queue was already gathering for lunch. We located a table and Salome told me to sit down and wait while she wound her way towards the busy counter to obtain the food. I complied without protest, welcoming the sanctuary from the impatient pandemonium of energetic bodies going places endlessly.
I settled myself as comfortably as I could, trying to ignore the stiffness and usual aching in my joints. The malaise had started with old sports injuries which had left their mark, according to the doctors’ diagnoses. I had been a bright light on the rugby field, way back. Pain-killers dulled the throb of pain when it preyed on me. Other prescriptions though, such as cutting back on rich food, had met with less obedience from me, which eventually wreaked revenge in an attack of gout. Under Salome’s command, I had become more meager in my diet and relatively resigned to toeing the line for however long I had left. This morning she had interrupted my preparation of a document for the director of the company from which I’d retired some years ago. They kept me on the books as a consultant for occasional project work which proved a source of stimulation and distraction from the banality of my increasingly limited existence.
I looked around at the people tucking into their meals and chatting. Ahead were a couple of dapper chaps and a young lady in a chic suit, who, I guessed, were legal eagles like myself. They were absorbed in an intense debate, and it reminded me of the ideals I had brought to the profession, the keenness for administering justice and doing my bit for a fairly ordered society. Wryly I shook my head at the recollection and how those intentions were gradually whittled away by the experience and practice.
The job did however ensure me a hefty salary, which I would, sooner or later, be leaving to my relatives. I hadn’t heard from any of them for months. My ex-wife of course would expect her share too. We had been married for ten years and spent perhaps three years of those together, due to our business commitments. She had then been a ravishing and controversial actress, never stuck for a role, or flatterers. I was not short of temptations myself, in the glamorous circles we moved in. It was simply not a surprise when, during a rare honest conversation, we both owned up to the fraying façade and decided to take our fresh chances apart. Now she lives with her third husband, in relative contentment according to the annual Christmas card I receive from her. I never tried for domestic bliss again; the bachelor’s life fitted my schedule better.
To my right was an elderly couple, slowly digesting their food, hunched and cautious as though grateful for this respite. They had probably collected their pensions today, sneaking a weekly treat before ambling on to a cheap supermarket for groceries. Next to them huddled a pack of old girls, chirpily exchanging gossip. I often wondered how people could settle for so little. The older I got, it seemed the less I understood about the human animal.
I straightened myself in the chair, feet flat on floor. I took a deep breath which cleared away my ruminative mood. It was then I took stock of the group to my left, a young man and woman with two small children, shrouded in their own special atmosphere. They looked a little out-of-place, as though this was not a familiar setting; probably up from the country. They were courteous and considerate in their smooth interactions, and I was tickled by their charming dynamic. The presumed parents were multi-tasking, feeding themselves, and overseeing their children taking adequate sustenance despite the novel diversions away from home. These children were endearing, showing a natural trust and enthusiasm while retaining good manners. They exuded an air of uncalculated organic presence, as if using this time to nourish themselves was in fact the most important thing in the whole world->->->
- goinghome
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
After Literacy, Comprehension?!
The following questions and answers were collated from past British GCSE exams. -
Geography - Q: Name the four seasons. A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.
Q. Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.
A: Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists.
Q: How is dew formed? A: The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire. Q: What is a planet? A: A body of earth surrounded by sky.
Q: What causes the tides in the oceans? A: The tides are a fight between the Earth and the Moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight.
Sociology - Q: What guarantees may a mortgage company insist on? A: If you are buying a house, they will insist you are well endowed.
Q: In a democratic society, how important are elections? A: Very important. Sex can only happen when a male gets an election.
Q: What are steroids? A: Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs.
Biology - Q: What happens to your body as you age? A: When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental.
Q: What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty? A: He says goodbye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery.
Q: Name a major disease associated with cigarettes? A: Premature death.
Q: How can you delay milk turning sour? A. Keep it in the cow. [He got an A]
Q: How are the main parts of the body categorised?(e.g.abdomen.) A: The body is consisted into three parts - the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity. The branium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels,A,E,I,O and U.
Q: What is the Fibula? A: A small lie.
Q: What does "varicose" mean? A: Nearby.
Q: What is the most common form of birth control? A: Most people prevent contraception by wearing a condominium.
Q: Give the meaning of the term "Caesarean Section." A: The caesarean section is a district in Rome.
Q: What is a seizure? A: A Roman emperor.
Q: What is a terminal illness? A: When you are sick at the airport.
Q: Give an example of a fungus. What is a characteristic feature? A: Mushrooms. They always grow in damp places and so they look like umbrellas.
English - Q: Use the word "judicious" in a sentence to show you understand its meaning. A: Hands that judicious can be soft as your face.
Q: What does the word "benign" mean? A : Benign is what you will be after you be eight.
Technology Q : What is a turbine? A : Something an Arab wears on his head.
Geography - Q: Name the four seasons. A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.
Q. Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.
A: Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists.
Q: How is dew formed? A: The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire. Q: What is a planet? A: A body of earth surrounded by sky.
Q: What causes the tides in the oceans? A: The tides are a fight between the Earth and the Moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight.
Sociology - Q: What guarantees may a mortgage company insist on? A: If you are buying a house, they will insist you are well endowed.
Q: In a democratic society, how important are elections? A: Very important. Sex can only happen when a male gets an election.
Q: What are steroids? A: Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs.
Biology - Q: What happens to your body as you age? A: When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental.
Q: What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty? A: He says goodbye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery.
Q: Name a major disease associated with cigarettes? A: Premature death.
Q: How can you delay milk turning sour? A. Keep it in the cow. [He got an A]
Q: How are the main parts of the body categorised?(e.g.abdomen.) A: The body is consisted into three parts - the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity. The branium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels,A,E,I,O and U.
Q: What is the Fibula? A: A small lie.
Q: What does "varicose" mean? A: Nearby.
Q: What is the most common form of birth control? A: Most people prevent contraception by wearing a condominium.
Q: Give the meaning of the term "Caesarean Section." A: The caesarean section is a district in Rome.
Q: What is a seizure? A: A Roman emperor.
Q: What is a terminal illness? A: When you are sick at the airport.
Q: Give an example of a fungus. What is a characteristic feature? A: Mushrooms. They always grow in damp places and so they look like umbrellas.
English - Q: Use the word "judicious" in a sentence to show you understand its meaning. A: Hands that judicious can be soft as your face.
Q: What does the word "benign" mean? A : Benign is what you will be after you be eight.
Technology Q : What is a turbine? A : Something an Arab wears on his head.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Super Psychologist Tommy MacKay's Child Literacy Study
Professor Tommy Mackay, winner of the British Psychology Society's Award for Distinguished Contributions to Professional Psychology, wrote this outstanding article on applied psychology and the human welfare agenda. It was first published in The Psychologist, November 2008, and is uploaded in its entirety on Bloom Blog: Can psychology change the world?
Select paragraphs give the gist:
"...However, if we are to answer the question ‘Can psychology change the world?’, we must go beyond the good we routinely do from day to day and grasp a bigger vision – a national vision, a world vision. If we aim to change the world we must ultimately do so at the highest level of its social, political and organisational structures.
If we are seeking to achieve visionary outcomes then there will be certain tests by which we can judge our efforts. For example, has it made a recognised impact at the highest political levels? Has it been celebrated by the media? Has it become known in our communities and not just in our academic and professional circles? Do we hear it spoken of as common parlance in our streets and supermarkets? These were some of the questions that preoccupied me 10 years ago when I sought to address an issue at the very heart of human well-being and quality of life in a modern society – the problem of illiteracy. In terms of these tests I have been fortunate in the outcomes of my vision for literacy. As to political profile, the Prime Minister described it as, ‘Something quite remarkable…able to revolutionise an education system to the benefit of thousands of people’ (Brown, 2007, p.222). As to media impact, it has been covered over 100 times in newspaper headlines and on radio and television. And I can ask most passers-by about it in the streets or stores of the communities where I work and expect an informed and enthusiastic response.
Changing the world – the example of illiteracy
Every year over 100,000 young people in the UK leave school functionally illiterate (Basic Skills Agency, 2001; Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2000). In today’s society illiteracy and human well-being do not go well together, and it is axiomatic to say that those who enter their adult life illiterate have poorer job prospects and restricted economic outcomes. If we are looking for a very straightforward social issue for applied psychologists to tackle at an ambitious and visionary level then we will find it in illiteracy.
It was this problem that led me in 1996 to send a proposal to the Director of Education in West Dunbartonshire in a paper entitled ‘Transforming the reading achievement of all children’. Looking back, the proposal was ambitious almost to the point of pomposity. Its stated purpose was to ‘achieve something that has never been done in the world before, but which I believe to be fully achievable’. The goal: not just for every single child to have higher reading levels, but the total eradication of illiteracy. It was not without risk: ‘Unless the council is willing to risk a commitment to achieving the impossible it is limited only to the ordinary and the possible.’
Thus the West Dunbartonshire Literacy Initiative was born, and just over a decade (and three tons of data) later we have completed what may be the largest, longest and most ambitious literacy project in the world. Our total research sample was 63,563 children and young people, over 33,000 of whom were assessed individually. The full research document is available in book form (MacKay, 2006), and an overview of the final results is published in Achieving the Vision (MacKay, 2007), an electronic copy of which is freely available (see references). We carried out five separate studies.
The main study
This was a cross-lagged cohort study over 10 years in all 35 primary schools and 23 nurseries. The aim was not only to raise the reading attainment of all children but to reduce the numbers who would experience reading failure through a multiple-strategy early intervention. Our programme was based on 10 ‘key strands’...
The changes in achievement levels were dramatic. From a welter of statistics perhaps the simplest way to present the results is to say that the children with ‘very low scores’ for word reading on our specially designed baseline test (MacKay, 1999a) fell from 11 per cent in 1997 to 0.5 per cent in 2007, while those with ‘very high scores’ rose from 5 per cent to almost 50 per cent. In short, the intervention totally transformed the landscape of reading attainment in the early years...
Bloom Blog: Can psychology change the world?
The report of the study is called "Achieving the Vision" (MacKay, 2007) and is available free on request from education.centralregistry@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
Select paragraphs give the gist:
"...However, if we are to answer the question ‘Can psychology change the world?’, we must go beyond the good we routinely do from day to day and grasp a bigger vision – a national vision, a world vision. If we aim to change the world we must ultimately do so at the highest level of its social, political and organisational structures.
If we are seeking to achieve visionary outcomes then there will be certain tests by which we can judge our efforts. For example, has it made a recognised impact at the highest political levels? Has it been celebrated by the media? Has it become known in our communities and not just in our academic and professional circles? Do we hear it spoken of as common parlance in our streets and supermarkets? These were some of the questions that preoccupied me 10 years ago when I sought to address an issue at the very heart of human well-being and quality of life in a modern society – the problem of illiteracy. In terms of these tests I have been fortunate in the outcomes of my vision for literacy. As to political profile, the Prime Minister described it as, ‘Something quite remarkable…able to revolutionise an education system to the benefit of thousands of people’ (Brown, 2007, p.222). As to media impact, it has been covered over 100 times in newspaper headlines and on radio and television. And I can ask most passers-by about it in the streets or stores of the communities where I work and expect an informed and enthusiastic response.
Changing the world – the example of illiteracy
Every year over 100,000 young people in the UK leave school functionally illiterate (Basic Skills Agency, 2001; Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2000). In today’s society illiteracy and human well-being do not go well together, and it is axiomatic to say that those who enter their adult life illiterate have poorer job prospects and restricted economic outcomes. If we are looking for a very straightforward social issue for applied psychologists to tackle at an ambitious and visionary level then we will find it in illiteracy.
It was this problem that led me in 1996 to send a proposal to the Director of Education in West Dunbartonshire in a paper entitled ‘Transforming the reading achievement of all children’. Looking back, the proposal was ambitious almost to the point of pomposity. Its stated purpose was to ‘achieve something that has never been done in the world before, but which I believe to be fully achievable’. The goal: not just for every single child to have higher reading levels, but the total eradication of illiteracy. It was not without risk: ‘Unless the council is willing to risk a commitment to achieving the impossible it is limited only to the ordinary and the possible.’
Thus the West Dunbartonshire Literacy Initiative was born, and just over a decade (and three tons of data) later we have completed what may be the largest, longest and most ambitious literacy project in the world. Our total research sample was 63,563 children and young people, over 33,000 of whom were assessed individually. The full research document is available in book form (MacKay, 2006), and an overview of the final results is published in Achieving the Vision (MacKay, 2007), an electronic copy of which is freely available (see references). We carried out five separate studies.
The main study
This was a cross-lagged cohort study over 10 years in all 35 primary schools and 23 nurseries. The aim was not only to raise the reading attainment of all children but to reduce the numbers who would experience reading failure through a multiple-strategy early intervention. Our programme was based on 10 ‘key strands’...
The changes in achievement levels were dramatic. From a welter of statistics perhaps the simplest way to present the results is to say that the children with ‘very low scores’ for word reading on our specially designed baseline test (MacKay, 1999a) fell from 11 per cent in 1997 to 0.5 per cent in 2007, while those with ‘very high scores’ rose from 5 per cent to almost 50 per cent. In short, the intervention totally transformed the landscape of reading attainment in the early years...
Bloom Blog: Can psychology change the world?
The report of the study is called "Achieving the Vision" (MacKay, 2007) and is available free on request from education.centralregistry@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
Monday, January 19, 2009
Alice Miller, Child Redeemer, plus mischief...
Alice Miller, a child therapist who started to draw serious attention to the common incidence of cruelty to children in the ‘70s but is still away ahead of her time, noted a pervasive unease with early experiences. She said: “we find the effort, marked by varying degrees of intensity and by the use of various coercive measures, to rid ourselves as quickly as possible of the child within us – i.e. the weak, helpless, dependent creature – in order to become an independent adult deserving of respect. When we re-encounter this creature in our own children we persecute it with the same measure once used on ourselves. And this is what we are accustomed to call ‘child rearing’ (from “For your own Good”) It really can take an inordinate amount of strength sometimes to be gentle and kind in a society of rules and roles, where child-like open-hearted, open-minded freshness is often only welcome in tightly prescribed circumstances, and for some and not others."
Parental expectations hem in the child's natural freedom, engendering a subconscious rage that can be lived out irrationally in adult life to perpetuate child abuse. A favourite metaphor of hers about what is at stake is the story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his own child's life at the whim of a distant authority, but her familiarity with the myths and literature of culture generally is formiddable.
A concise round-up of her books can be viewed at: Books by Alice Miller, Ph.D. - The Natural Child Project
Still, children can pose challenges, such as these:
A Dad's Story - When my daughter was about four years old, she still had a hard time grasping the concept of marriage. But anyway, I got out our wedding album, thinking visual images would help, and explained the entire service to her. Once finished, I asked if she had any questions, and she replied, "Oh, I see. Is that when Mommy came to work for us?
A mother took her three-year-old daughter to church for the first time.
The church lights were lowered, and then the choir came down the aisle, carrying lighted candles. All was quiet until the little one started to sing in a loud voice "Happy Birthday to you..."
After listening restlessly to a long and tedious sermon, a 6-year-old boy asked his father what the preacher did the rest of the week. "Oh, he's a very busy man," the father replied. "He takes care of church business, visits the sick, ministers to the poor... and then he has to have time to rest up. Talking in public isn't an easy job, you know."
The boy thought about that, then said, "Well, listening ain't easy, either."
At the beginning of a children's sermon, one girl comes up to the altar wearing a beautiful dress. As the children are sitting down around the pastor, the pastor leans over and says to the girl, "That is a very pretty dress. Is it your Easter dress?" The girl replies almost directly into the pastor's clip-on mike, "Yes, and my mother says it is a bitch to iron."
I had been teaching my three-year-old daughter, Caitlin, the Lord's Prayer for several evenings. At bedtime she repeated it after me. One night she said she was ready to solo. I listened with pride as she carefully enunciated each word, right up to the end of the prayer. " Lead us not into temptation," she prayed, "but deliver us some e-mail. Amen."
A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin, 5 and Ryan, 3. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson. "If Jesus were sitting here, He would say, 'Let my brother have the first pancake. I can wait.'"
Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, "Ryan, you be Jesus!"
A father was at the beach with his children when the four-year old son ran up to him, grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore, where a seagull lay dead in the sand. "Daddy, what happened to him?" the son asked. "He died and went to Heaven," the dad replied. The boy thought a moment and then said, "Did God throw him back down?"
After the church service a little boy told the pastor, "when I grow up, I'm going to give you some money." "Well, thank you," the pastor replied, "but why?" "Because my daddy says you're one of the poorest preachers we've ever had."
A wife invited some people to dinner. At the table, she turned to their six-year old daughter and said, "Would you like to say the blessing?"
"I wouldn't know what to say," the girl replied.
Just say what you hear Mommy say, " the wife answered.
The daughter bowed her head and said, "Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?"
Parental expectations hem in the child's natural freedom, engendering a subconscious rage that can be lived out irrationally in adult life to perpetuate child abuse. A favourite metaphor of hers about what is at stake is the story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his own child's life at the whim of a distant authority, but her familiarity with the myths and literature of culture generally is formiddable.
A concise round-up of her books can be viewed at: Books by Alice Miller, Ph.D. - The Natural Child Project
Still, children can pose challenges, such as these:
A Dad's Story - When my daughter was about four years old, she still had a hard time grasping the concept of marriage. But anyway, I got out our wedding album, thinking visual images would help, and explained the entire service to her. Once finished, I asked if she had any questions, and she replied, "Oh, I see. Is that when Mommy came to work for us?
A mother took her three-year-old daughter to church for the first time.
The church lights were lowered, and then the choir came down the aisle, carrying lighted candles. All was quiet until the little one started to sing in a loud voice "Happy Birthday to you..."
After listening restlessly to a long and tedious sermon, a 6-year-old boy asked his father what the preacher did the rest of the week. "Oh, he's a very busy man," the father replied. "He takes care of church business, visits the sick, ministers to the poor... and then he has to have time to rest up. Talking in public isn't an easy job, you know."
The boy thought about that, then said, "Well, listening ain't easy, either."
At the beginning of a children's sermon, one girl comes up to the altar wearing a beautiful dress. As the children are sitting down around the pastor, the pastor leans over and says to the girl, "That is a very pretty dress. Is it your Easter dress?" The girl replies almost directly into the pastor's clip-on mike, "Yes, and my mother says it is a bitch to iron."
I had been teaching my three-year-old daughter, Caitlin, the Lord's Prayer for several evenings. At bedtime she repeated it after me. One night she said she was ready to solo. I listened with pride as she carefully enunciated each word, right up to the end of the prayer. " Lead us not into temptation," she prayed, "but deliver us some e-mail. Amen."
A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin, 5 and Ryan, 3. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson. "If Jesus were sitting here, He would say, 'Let my brother have the first pancake. I can wait.'"
Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, "Ryan, you be Jesus!"
A father was at the beach with his children when the four-year old son ran up to him, grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore, where a seagull lay dead in the sand. "Daddy, what happened to him?" the son asked. "He died and went to Heaven," the dad replied. The boy thought a moment and then said, "Did God throw him back down?"
After the church service a little boy told the pastor, "when I grow up, I'm going to give you some money." "Well, thank you," the pastor replied, "but why?" "Because my daddy says you're one of the poorest preachers we've ever had."
A wife invited some people to dinner. At the table, she turned to their six-year old daughter and said, "Would you like to say the blessing?"
"I wouldn't know what to say," the girl replied.
Just say what you hear Mommy say, " the wife answered.
The daughter bowed her head and said, "Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?"
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Shane Dunphy's Revelations of Children in Pieces
Shane Dunphy is a journalist, author and child protection worker whose accounts of cases he has dealt with were compiled and published recently, as described in his myspace site:
See MySpace.com - Shane Dunphy - 35 - Male - Wexford, IE - www.myspace.com/shanedunphy
Hush, Little Baby was released in August 2008. Excerpts from the book appeared in the Irish Independent, along with an article by the author on how the treatment of children within the child protection system has changed (or not) in Ireland. Here's the blurb:
Five heart-stopping true stories of terror and triumph, told by the man who tried to make life better for these troubled children ...Clive, a thirteen-year-old victim of terrifying demonic visions, tells frightening stories of abuse and imprisonment. Could they be genuine? Patrick, twelve, bravely setting out to find the truth about his birth family - however painful it may be ...Six-year-old Johnny, tiny and undernourished, desperately tries to recover from a brain-injury inflicted by his drunken and violent father ...At fourteen, Katie is so aggressive that the authorities have put her in special care, away from other children. What could be the cause of such fury? And in a grim island prison, a lumbering bully ponders his crimes against his twin children, Larry and Francey - while his sadistic and conniving wife, the real monster behind his actions, tries to fool the state into returning the traumatised boy and girl to her care.
November 2008 The Boy in the Cupboard had just been published in the UK! I'm afraid it won't be hitting the shelves in Ireland for another eight or nine months, but I'm delighted to be able to tell my English readers that it is now available. Here's the blurb:
Three heart-stopping stories of children trapped by their parents' pasts ... Craig, the little boy who can't speak English, isn't allowed to use his real name and hides food around his playschool, afraid he'll be hungry again. His parents are trying to make a fresh start, but their gangland bosses are about to catch up with the family and Craig will pay a terrible price... Edgar is a twelve-year-old boy who nobody wants, not even the staff at the residential unit where he lives. Just when it seems that there might be a way of getting through to Edgar, his mother reveals a secret that changes everything ... Vinnie is a teenage boy who knows exactly what his gangster father is capable of, of how he makes problems disappear. He also knows that he had become a very big problem for his father ... ... One man's fight to give these children the future they deserve.
See MySpace.com - Shane Dunphy - 35 - Male - Wexford, IE - www.myspace.com/shanedunphy
Friday, January 16, 2009
Lullaby by James
YouTube - James - Lullaby
LYRIC
Since your mother cast her spell
Every kiss has left a bruise
You've been raiding too much meaning from existence
Now your head is used and sore
And the forecast is for more
Memories falling, like falling rain
Falling rain
Every view they hold on you's
A piano, out of tune
You're an angel
You're a demon
You're just human
Now your world has turned to trash
Broken windows on the past
Take that child and teach him senseless
Damage the dream, damage the dream
I feel nothing, I feel nothing at all
I feel nothing at all
In this gloomy, haunted place
All the feelings are of shame
All the windows have been broken by the children
So the wind screams up the stairs
Slams the doors and rattles chairs
I wish we weren't conceived in violence
Damage the dream, damage the dream
The magic is broken
The house is in ruins
Your memory's one-sided
The side that you're choosing feels nothing
Feels nothing at all
We feel nothing at all
- James
Thursday, January 15, 2009
The Ethics of Having Children
There are just too many confounding variables for a straightforward reply as to whether there’s a point in having children. Anyone who says no categorically to humans being born is ultimately devaluing their very own existence. Mature creatures are mostly hardwired to wax dippy and sacrificial at the sight of their young, and the glow and pride of parenthood is experienced as real lasting joy in many cases. We hear a lot about those desperate couples putting themselves through horrors to have a child. The ideal of family is compelling. Community has less to offer as a substitute than it ever did. The reality is probably that the birth of most people in the world is not planned. So many circumstances can change our preferences, decisions and actions. The appearance of ‘love’ can overwhelm reason, but even reason gives permission now through science to believe that we are at the mercy of our genes and hormones e.g. - Caveman Sex: How Evolutionary Psych Pushes Sexist Stereotypes | Sex and Relationships | AlterNet
Getting beyond our individual whims, babies cost money, use up resources, and the more babies there are, the greater the burden on the species, and on the environment, which presses all the conflict buttons -
World Overpopulation Awareness (population) and,
Yale Environment 360: Too Many People, Too Much Consumption
On balance having children is not ideally something to rush into without realising the commitment and responsibility needed to bring up a new human being with some chance of happiness and success. Too many children in care are living proof of the failure of state responsibility for the vast majority for whom the outlook is severe adult deprivation. On those youngsters already arrived, just love them all up.
- goinghome
Getting beyond our individual whims, babies cost money, use up resources, and the more babies there are, the greater the burden on the species, and on the environment, which presses all the conflict buttons -
World Overpopulation Awareness (population) and,
Yale Environment 360: Too Many People, Too Much Consumption
On balance having children is not ideally something to rush into without realising the commitment and responsibility needed to bring up a new human being with some chance of happiness and success. Too many children in care are living proof of the failure of state responsibility for the vast majority for whom the outlook is severe adult deprivation. On those youngsters already arrived, just love them all up.
- goinghome
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Middle East Conflict; A Ginsberg, K Wilber, B. Eno & R. Mdah
YouTube - HUM BOMB? LEBANON 2006 feat. Allen Ginsberg
YouTube - The Most Conflict Ridden Turf in the Known Universe
Brian Eno criticises Israel over its Gaza clashes | News | NME.COM
Randa Mdah's Palestinian puppet theatre earned her the title Young Artist of the Year 2008 from the Qattan Foundation. The distorted shapes of the puppets represent oppressions experienced e.g
More information at: Stingy Kids: The puppet inside me
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Auschwitz: Never again?
The Final Solution was approved and implemented by the German Government in 1942, entailing the extermination of the Jewish race and some other minority groups. Auschwitz 1 was the first labour camp to open in 1940, built on the grounds of an abandonned Polish army camp. The steel banner above the entrance gate is still there: it promises "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work brings Freedom) - the epitomy of irony. I visited this past winter. Also on view are the fences, the red-brick barracks, personal possessions, including inmates' shorn hair, and recreated ovens where the corpses were burned. Nearby Birkenau (Auschwitz II) was opened in 1941, accessible by trains from all over Europe. On arrival and selection, three-quarters of prisoners were led straight to their death in the gas chambers. Between these two slaughterhouses, an estimated 1.1 people were murdered, 90% of them Jewish. The camp commandant Rudolf Hess was hanged on an especially erected gallows in 1947.
World War II was called 'the war to end all wars', provoking the creation of the United Nations in a global effort to resolve conflicts without bloodshed. Alas, this was not to be. Speaking in Boston in December 1969 before the International Student Society, the Hare Krishna movement leader Srila Prabhupada provides a practical, simple, yet profound solution for world peace and harmony, involving a transcendent spiritual interest. Noting the increasing number of flags at the United Nations building in New York, he stated that inter-nationalism was failing because "your international feeling and my inter-national feeling are overlapping and conflicting. We have to find the proper center for our loving feelings..." The Hare Krsnas - The Philosophy - Writings of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada
(scroll down)
As part of an introduction to the 15th anniversary edition (2004) of his ground-breaking book on mindfulness Full Catastrophe Living, Jon Kabat-Zinn cites many locations of war in the world: Chile, Beirut, South Africa, East Timor, Afghanastan, Darfur and so on, as well as September 11, 2001, when "we all would instantly nod our heads in recognition of the magnitude of what has been unfolding in the interim. What we have called here"world stress" has only grown over the intervening years, and while the salient names that dominate our news and foreign policy have changed and will continue to change, the themes are depressingly familiar, and the weeping goes on even in the face of all the beauty and good that has also been unfolding during that time. The world itself is weeping and begs for us to bring an entirely different level of attention and resolve to its suffering, based on our inherent beauty, goodness, and creative imagination as human beings..."
A recent documentary film, Death in Gaza, provides major painful insights into the world of Palestinians who feel colonised by the Jews in Israel and by a world who took sides. Death in Gaza (2004)
An album by a Palestinian musician living in Ireland, Sami Moukaddem, also reveals the trapped and life-threatening conditions endured by some communities there - http://www.samimoukaddem.com/files/musicsamples/palestine/The_Facts_Of_Life_For_The_Palestinian.pdf . The misery lasts a lifetime there, and like cornered creatures, they strike back, destroying themselves willingly in avenging a life without liberty. This album and the documentary previously mentioned were created before the onset of the current full-on aggressions.
"Perhaps", reflected Kabat-Zinn in the remainder of that section, "mindfulness can play a significant role in the healing not only of ourselves but also of our world in ways little and big, and yet to be imagined".
Monday, January 12, 2009
Sri Prabhupada; Shortcomings of Marxism
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (1896 - 1977) was a very influential teacher from India who wrote many books that were highly respected for their depth of scholarship. Some of his talks and interviews were recorded as well, one of which concerned the merits of Marxism as a system of government compared with other political arrangements. The excerpt below demonstrates the Swami's fearless confrontational style, and the lively content, while not 100% persuasive on either side, includes many important insights:
Śyāmasundara: Marx’s idea is that the center is the state.
Śrīla Prabhupāda: But the state cannot be perfect. If the Russian state is perfect, then why was Khrushchev driven from power? He was elected premier. Why was he driven from power?
Śyāmasundara: Because he was not fulfilling the aims of the people.
Śrīla Prabhupāda: Well, then, what is the guarantee the next premier will do that? There is no guarantee. The same thing will happen again and again. Because the center, Khrushchev, was imperfect, people begrudged their labor. The same thing is going on in non-communist countries as well. The government is changed, the prime minister is deposed, the president is impeached. So what is the real difference between Russian communism and other political systems? What is happening in other countries is also happening in Russia, only they call it by a different name. When we talked with Professor Kotovsky of Moscow University, we told him he had to surrender: either he must surrender to Kṛṣṇa or to Lenin, but he must surrender. He was taken aback at this.
Śyāmasundara: From studying history, Marx concluded that the characteristics of culture, the social structure, and even the thoughts of the people are determined by the means of economic production.
Śrīla Prabhupāda: How does he account for all the social disruption in countries like America, which is so advanced in economic production?
Śyāmasundara: He says that capitalism is a decadent form of economic production because it relies on the exploitation of one class by another.
Śrīla Prabhupāda: But there is exploitation in the communist countries also. Khrushchev was driven out of power because he was exploiting his position. He was giving big government posts to his son and son-in-law.
Śyāmasundara: He was deviating from the doctrine.
Śrīla Prabhupāda: But since any leader can deviate, how will perfection come? First the person in the center must be perfect, then his dictations will be correct. Otherwise, if the leaders are all imperfect men, what is the use of changing this or that? The corruption will continue.
Śyāmasundara: Presumably the perfect leader would be the one who practiced Marx’s philosophy without deviation.
Śrīla Prabhupāda: But Marx’s philosophy is also imperfect! His proposal for a classless society is unworkable. There must be one class of men to administer the government and one class of men to sweep the streets. How can there be a classless society? Why should a sweeper be satisfied seeing someone else in the administrative post? He will think, “He is forcing me to work as a sweeper in the street while he sits comfortably in a chair.” In our Inter-national Society, I am also holding the superior post: I am sitting in a chair, and you are offering me garlands and the best food. Why? Because you see a perfect man whom you can follow. That mentality must be there. Everyone in the society must be able to say, “Yes, here is a perfect man. Let him sit in a chair, and let us all bow down and work like menials.” Where is that perfect man in the communist countries?
Śyāmasundara: The Russians claim that Lenin is a perfect man.
Śrīla Prabhupāda: Lenin? But no one is following Lenin. Lenin’s only perfection was that he overthrew the czar’s government. What other perfection has he shown? The people are not happy simply reading Lenin’s books. I studied the people in Moscow. They are unhappy. The government cannot force them to be happy artificially. Unless there is a perfect, ideal man in the center, there cannot possibly be a classless society.
Śyāmasundara: Perhaps they see the workers and the managers in the same way that we do—in the absolute sense. Since everyone is serving the state, the sweeper is as good as the administrator.
Śrīla Prabhupāda: But unless the state gives perfect satisfaction to the people, there will always be distinctions between higher and lower classes. In the Russian state, that sense of perfection in the center is lacking.
PrabhupadaBooks.com -- Srila Prabhupada's Original pre-1978 Books Online
Sunday, January 11, 2009
The Wisdom of Crowds
“The Wisdom of Crowds” (2004) is a captivating book by James Surowiecki about why the many are often smarter than the few. He concludes that four conditions must be satisfied: “diversity of opinion (each person should have some private information, even if it’s just an eccentric interpretation of the known facts); independence (people’s opinions are not determined by the opinions of those around them); decentralization (people are able to specialize and draw on local knowledge), and aggregation (some mechanism exists for turning private judgements into a collective decision).” That means that the better you are alone, the better you are in a crowd!
Book preview: The Wisdom of Crowds
Some more interesting observations on crowds here - advertising practitioner: spectacle, communality, naked chainsaw juggling
and here - Group psychology in a single skull | The crowd within | The Economist
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Why We React to 'Outsiders'
“The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell, subtitled ‘How little things can make a big difference’, presents, amongst other intriguing topics, an overview of the phenomenon of social overload. Most people, surveyed by psychologists, come up with a list of, on average, 12 people they know whose death would leave them truly devastated – our so-called sympathy group. Being friends with people requires attention and time, and caring can be exhausting. At a point somewhere between 10 and 15 people, it is claimed, humans as constructed, overload due to the effort to distinguish between individuals.
He cites S.L. Washburn, evolutionary biologist:
Integration of newcomers cannot be assumed readily, it is proposed, and equilibrium in a population expanding from the outside is probably best maintained by carefully phasing their introduction into the group involving ideally consensual adaption by the existing residents/their representatives. I believe this has often been achieved though sometimes not, and sometimes complications inevitably arise, as they would of one form or another anyway, with or without new members. In the past few hundred years, human culture, laws, norms etc have grown sophisticated enough to accommodate mass movement of people, if not perfectly or uniformly. The long quote that follows theorising on why this might be so, starts on page 177…
He cites S.L. Washburn, evolutionary biologist:
“Most of human evolution took place before the advent of agriculture when men lived in small groups, on a face-to-face basis. As a result human biology has evolved as an adaptive mechanism to conditions that have largely ceased to exist. Man evolved to feel strongly about few people, short distances, and relatively brief intervals of time; and these are still the dimensions of life that are important to him”.
Integration of newcomers cannot be assumed readily, it is proposed, and equilibrium in a population expanding from the outside is probably best maintained by carefully phasing their introduction into the group involving ideally consensual adaption by the existing residents/their representatives. I believe this has often been achieved though sometimes not, and sometimes complications inevitably arise, as they would of one form or another anyway, with or without new members. In the past few hundred years, human culture, laws, norms etc have grown sophisticated enough to accommodate mass movement of people, if not perfectly or uniformly. The long quote that follows theorising on why this might be so, starts on page 177…
“Perhaps the most interesting natural limit, however, is what might be called our social channel capacity… most persuasively [argued] by the British anthropologist Robin Dunbar. Dunbar begins with a simple observation. Primates – monkeys, chimps, baboons, humans – have the biggest brains of all mammals. More important, a specific part of the brain of humans and other primates – the region know as the neocortex, which deals with complex thought and reasoning – is huge by mammal standards. For years, scientists have argued back and forth about why this is the case. One theory is that our brains evolved because our primate ancestors began to engage in more sophisticated food gathering; instead of just eating grasses and leaves they began eating fruit, which takes more thinking power. You travel much farther to find fruit than leaves, so you need to be able to create mental maps. You have to worry about ripeness. You have to peel parts away in order to eat the flesh of a fruit and so on. The problem with that theory is that if you try to match up brain size with eating patterns among primates, it doesn’t work. There are primate leaf-eaters with big brains and fruit-eaters with smaller brains, just as there are primates with small cortexes who travel great distances for their food and primates with big brains who stay at home to eat, so the food argument is a dead end. So what does correlate with brain size? The answer, Dunbar argues, is group size. If you look at any species of primate – at every variety of monkey and ape – the larger their neocortex is, the larger the average size of the groups they live with.
Dunbar’s argument is that brains evolve, they get bigger, in order to handle the complexities of larger social groups. If you belong to a group of five people…you have to keep track of ten separate relationships: your relationships with the four others in your circle and the six other tow-way relationships between the others. That’s what it means to know everyone in the circle. You have to understand the personal dynamics of the group, juggle different personalities, keep people happy, manage the demands on your onw time and attention, and so on. If you belong to a group of twenty people, however, there are now 190 two-way relationships to keep track of: 19 involving yourself and 171 involving the rest of the group. That’s a fivefold inreas in the size of the group, but a twentyfold increase in the amount of information processing need to “know” the other members of the group… [which] creates a significant additional social and intellectual burden. Humans socialise in the largest groups of all primates because we are the only animals with brains large enough to handle the complexities of that social arrangement.
[Dunbar concluded that] “the figure of 150 seems to represent the maximum number of individuals with whom we can have a genuinely social relationship, the kind of relathioship that goes with knowing who they are and how they relate to us”…Dunbar has combed through the anthropological literature and found that the number 150 pops up again and again. For example, he looks at 21 different hunter-gatherer societies for which we have solid historical evidence, from the Walbiri of Australia to the Tauade of New Guinea to the Ammassalik of Greenland to the Ona of Tierra del Fuego and found that the average number of people in their villages was 148.4. The same pattern holds true for military organisition…”as though the planners have discovered, by trial and error over the centuries, that it is hard to get more than this number of men sufficiently familiar with each other so that they can work together as a functional unit”….At a bigger size you have to impose complicated hierarchies and rules and regulations and formal measures to try to command loyalty and cohesion, [but at 150 or below] “orders can be implemented and unruly behaviour controlled on the basis of personal loyalties and direct man-to-man contacts”… In the case of the [religious] Hutterites, people who are willing to go along with the group, who can be easily infected with the community ethos below the level of 150, somehow, suddenly – with just the smallest change in the size of the community – become divided and alienated…” [unless given the chance when at all possible, through time, resources, leadership etc, to re-organise and build sister communities to grow eventually into the functional group size and so on…]
Friday, January 9, 2009
Foothold in Society:The Boy with Thorn in Side
Surely this song by The Smiths sets out the core questions around which the discipline of sociology revolves as succinctly as can be? - "And if they don't believe us now, Will they ever believe us? And when you want to live, how do you start? Where do you go? Who do you need to know?"
"The boy with the thorn in his side
Behind the hatred there lies
A murderous desire for love
How can they look into my eyes
And still they don't believe me ?
How can they hear me say those words
Still they don't believe me ?
And if they don't believe me now
Will they ever believe me ?
And if they don't believe me now
Will they ever, they ever, believe me ?
Oh ...
The boy with the thorn in his side
Behind the hatred there lies
A plundering desire for love
How can they see the Love in our eyes
And still they don't believe us ?
And after all this time
They don't want to believe us
And if they don't believe us now
Will they ever believe us ?
And when you want to Live
How do you start ?
Where do you go ?
Who do you need to know ?
Oh ...
Oh no ...
Oh ...
La ...
"The boy with the thorn in his side
Behind the hatred there lies
A murderous desire for love
How can they look into my eyes
And still they don't believe me ?
How can they hear me say those words
Still they don't believe me ?
And if they don't believe me now
Will they ever believe me ?
And if they don't believe me now
Will they ever, they ever, believe me ?
Oh ...
The boy with the thorn in his side
Behind the hatred there lies
A plundering desire for love
How can they see the Love in our eyes
And still they don't believe us ?
And after all this time
They don't want to believe us
And if they don't believe us now
Will they ever believe us ?
And when you want to Live
How do you start ?
Where do you go ?
Who do you need to know ?
Oh ...
Oh no ...
Oh ...
La ...
Thursday, January 8, 2009
The Mystery of the Hog in the Hedge!
nhbs bookstore online introduce a book by Hugh Warwick about our peaceful rustic friend, the hedgehog:-
Obsession, persecution and passion: the hedgehog may be small, but it attracts strong feelings. And Hugh Warwick is not immune. Travelling through fields in Devon and up to the islands of Scotland, visiting hedgehog hospitals across Britain and the International Hedgehog Olympics in the USA, travelling across China on the trail of the rare hedgehog species hughi, seen only twelve times in a 100 years, Hugh sets out to answer our questions about hedgehogs, from the practical to the sublime.
Considering hedgehogs and birds, featuring Brian May and Ted Hughes, explaining what hedgehogs do when they're not in our gardens and why it is that we like them, this is the funny, eccentric and moving story of one man's quest to understand our deep-rooted affection for these universally known, little-understood animals. Hedgehogs are often our first encounter with the animal world, yet their numbers are now declining rapidly, down 20 per cent in the last ten years (as Hugh knows from his involvement in HogWatch).
From tips on how to make your garden more hedgehog friendly, to explaining how hedgehogs can save the world, Hugh's journey finally leads him to understand that our passion for hedgehogs is indelibly linked to our sense of our countryside, our childhood, and ourselves. -
NHBS - A Prickly Affair: My Life with Hedgehogs - Hugh Warwick
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
'Life is a Pigsty' Dance; & a Centipede Joke
Life is a Pigsty is a song from Morrissey's 2006 album Ringleader of the Tormentors. Here a troupe of dancers offer their own agile interpretation.
YouTube - "S.O.S" for Angela
Tall Tale
This guy was lonely, and decided life would be more fun if he had a pet. So he went to the pet store and told the owner that he wanted to buy an unusual pet. After some discussion, he finally bought a centipede, which came in a little white box to use for his house. He took the box back home, found a good location for the box, and decided he would start off by taking his new pet to the bar to have a drink. So he asked the centipede in the box,
"Would you like to go to McGuire's with me and have a beer?"
But there was no answer from his new pet. This bothered him a bit, but he waited a few minutes and then asked him again,
"How about going to the bar and having a drink with me?"
But again, there was no answer from his new friend and pet.
So he waited a few minutes more, thinking about the situation.
He decided to ask him one more time; this time putting his face up against the centipede's house and shouting,
"Hey, in there! Would you like to go to McGuire's place and have a drink with me?"
A little voice came out of the box:
"I f*cking heard you the first time! I'm putting on my shoes."
YouTube - "S.O.S" for Angela
Tall Tale
This guy was lonely, and decided life would be more fun if he had a pet. So he went to the pet store and told the owner that he wanted to buy an unusual pet. After some discussion, he finally bought a centipede, which came in a little white box to use for his house. He took the box back home, found a good location for the box, and decided he would start off by taking his new pet to the bar to have a drink. So he asked the centipede in the box,
"Would you like to go to McGuire's with me and have a beer?"
But there was no answer from his new pet. This bothered him a bit, but he waited a few minutes and then asked him again,
"How about going to the bar and having a drink with me?"
But again, there was no answer from his new friend and pet.
So he waited a few minutes more, thinking about the situation.
He decided to ask him one more time; this time putting his face up against the centipede's house and shouting,
"Hey, in there! Would you like to go to McGuire's place and have a drink with me?"
A little voice came out of the box:
"I f*cking heard you the first time! I'm putting on my shoes."
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
No Joy-ride in Jail
Philip Bray published an autobiography this year of his working life as an Irish Prison Officer called "Inside Man". It is plainly and sympathetically told, as illustrated by these few paragraphs taken from it:
"Prisoners spent a lot of time inside those miserable, weeping cells. A lot of them told me that time didn't start for them until they were locked away at night. That was the roughest time for them. In the late 1970s, they were on their own. It wasn't good long ago, especially if you were on remand. The cells were very bare, and remand prisoners didn't get the cleanest cell as there was a constant turnover of prisoners. There was no radio, no television. You might have a book, but once the lights went out at 10pm, that was gone too.
In any case, a lot of the prisoners couldn't read or had limited literary skills. They had been let down by every one. Often, the parents didn't have the skills or support to guide them. Judges had the power to send young children away for years into the Church gulags, many for offences that, today, look very minor indeed, like skipping school. And they sent plenty of them off. When these children complained about the abuse they suffered, they were not believed. The schools were unable to teach them to read and write which limited their chances of getting any kind of proper work. Anyway their addresses alone could bar them from even an interview. They didn't trust the gardai, the clergy, politicians - nobody in authority was seen as a help. They were treated like second-class citizens and they knew it. There were battered and had no support of any kind, no jobs and no influence. Ireland had a culture of pulling strings - I had to pull strings to get a phone because there was a two-year waiting list. These guys had no strings to pull. They were ground down by poverty and ignorance. Ignorance is not stupidity. As a rule, the prisoners had limited education, but that didn't make them thick, so we tried to treat them with dignity..."
More details at: Inside Man by Philip Bray (9780717144815) - Books at Borders
When singer Morrissey was asked in an interview by Q magazine's Stuart Maconie in 1992, could he survive in prison, his answer was both flippant and insightful:
"Only as a stand-up comedian. No, prison would probably be the making of me. It would be the beginning of life. Freedom doesn't always mean freedom. I'd probably prosper. We all need a bit of restriction."
Monday, January 5, 2009
Why Are We Laughing? - Jos Houben, Deepak Chopra
I attended Jos Houben's acclaimed one-man show The Art of Laughter at last year's Dublin Fringe Festival in the Samual Beckett Theatre, Trinity College Dublin which was characterised by a superabundance of humanity and humour. It was a master-class on what we laugh at, and why. The author/actor can be heard explaining his deep understanding of how far we tolerate the slippage of dignity in the service of comedy, in a podcast here -
Electric Politics | EP Podcast: The Art of Laughter
Why is God Laughing is a recent book written by the spiritually prodigious Deepak Chopra. It's essentially a parable about a comedian, Mickey Fellows, and Francisco, who he meets and who becomes a sort of mentor in encouraging Mickey to explore his life behind his mask of comedy.
The message is that authentic humour serves relationships better, leading to more spiritual optimism and joy.
In the last chapter of the book, Chopra presents the 10 principles of spiritual optimism. He writes; "When you explore yourself on the inner plane, you are walking with intuition."
The 10 principles:
1. The healthiest response to life is laughter
2. There is always a reason to be grateful
3. You belong in the scene of the universe. There's nothing to be afraid of. You are safe.
4. Your soul cherishes every aspect of your life
5. There is a plan, and your soul knows it
6. Ecstasy is the energy of spirit. When life flows, ecstasy is natural
7. There is a creative solution to every problem. Every possibility holds the promise of abundance
8. Obstacles are opportunities in disguise
9. Evolution leads the way through desire
10. Freedom is letting go.
For a review, see Why Is God Laughing? by Deepak Chopra - Hardcover - Random House
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Monty Python Channel for all on YouTube
Here's a nice thing to dip in and out of for a blast of grotesque comedy.
- "No more of those crap quality videos you've been posting. We're giving you the real thing - HQ videos delivered straight from our vault.
What's more, we're taking our most viewed clips and uploading brand new HQ versions. And what's even more, we're letting you see absolutely everything for free. So there!
But we want something in return.
None of your driveling, mindless comments. Instead, we want you to click on the links, buy our movies & TV shows and soften our pain and disgust at being ripped off all these years."
YouTube - MontyPython's Channel
- "No more of those crap quality videos you've been posting. We're giving you the real thing - HQ videos delivered straight from our vault.
What's more, we're taking our most viewed clips and uploading brand new HQ versions. And what's even more, we're letting you see absolutely everything for free. So there!
But we want something in return.
None of your driveling, mindless comments. Instead, we want you to click on the links, buy our movies & TV shows and soften our pain and disgust at being ripped off all these years."
YouTube - MontyPython's Channel
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Current: News Online; & Top '08 Photos
Since its inception in 2005, Emmy award-winning Current TV has been the world's leading peer-to-peer news and information network. Current is the only 24/7 cable and satellite television network and Internet site produced and programmed in collaboration with its audience. Current connects young adults, as the primary audience, with what is going on in their world, from their perspective, in their own voices.
Current pioneered the television industry's leading model of interactive viewer created content (VC2). Comprising roughly one-third of Current's on-air broadcast, this content is submitted via short-form, non-fiction video "pods". Viewer Created Ad Messages (VCAMs) are also open to viewers participation.
Current's programming ranges from daily pop culture coverage to political satire in "SuperNews," unprecedented music journalism in "The Current Fix," and unique insights into global stories through Vanguard and Citizen Journalism.
Current.com is the first fully integrated web and TV platform where users can participate in shaping an ongoing stream of news and information that is compelling, authentic and relevant to them.
News // Current
The Guardian online editors have selected and displayed their favourite photographs of the past year, 2008 -
Pick of the pics 2008: 24 hours in pictures | World news | guardian.co.uk
Current pioneered the television industry's leading model of interactive viewer created content (VC2). Comprising roughly one-third of Current's on-air broadcast, this content is submitted via short-form, non-fiction video "pods". Viewer Created Ad Messages (VCAMs) are also open to viewers participation.
Current's programming ranges from daily pop culture coverage to political satire in "SuperNews," unprecedented music journalism in "The Current Fix," and unique insights into global stories through Vanguard and Citizen Journalism.
Current.com is the first fully integrated web and TV platform where users can participate in shaping an ongoing stream of news and information that is compelling, authentic and relevant to them.
News // Current
The Guardian online editors have selected and displayed their favourite photographs of the past year, 2008 -
Pick of the pics 2008: 24 hours in pictures | World news | guardian.co.uk
Friday, January 2, 2009
The Scepticism of Jeff Meyerhoff re. K. Wilber & more
As an independent scholar of philosophy, politics, mysticism and psychology, Jeff Meyerhoff has locked horns with Ken Wilber, and like any aspiring worthy adversary, taken him to task on several points. He wrote Bald Ambition: A Critique of Ken Wilber's Theory of Everything, published on Integral World; weblog - philosophyautobiography.blogspot.com. He also practices mindfulness and psychoanalysis, and has worked as a a psychiatric social worker.
From an essay written in 2006 on (under Ken Wilber's banner)integralworld.net -
An "Intellectual Tragedy", Jeff Meyerhoff
More recently, the seas are calmer (and the belief psychology claims embraced...)
From Meyerhoff's current blog - philosophy autobiography
This is why I offer a psychology of my beliefs and a psychology of Wilber's beliefs in my book. I am illustrating what this depth psychology of belief would look like. It in no way undermines the validity of anyone's beliefs. People's beliefs can only be invalidated by arguments and evidence. Knowing why people believe as they do is wholly different from determining the validity of what they believe. My approach can loosen intellectual deadlocks, promote self-knowledge and self-development, improve the quality of one's belief-system and alter what is understood to be true.
So the idea of spiritual insight at the limits of reason is not my “new paradigm” as Wilber puts it (that's a bit too grand for me, my ambition not being that bald). What is original in my work is the argument for why an analysis of the psychological basis of beliefs could play a role in enhancing argumentation and personal growth. That argument justifies my psychological analysis of Wilber's ideas (and anyone's ideas) in Chapter 10.
From an essay written in 2006 on (under Ken Wilber's banner)integralworld.net -
An "Intellectual Tragedy", Jeff Meyerhoff
More recently, the seas are calmer (and the belief psychology claims embraced...)
Examining Experience
It’s odd that there should be so much philosophical talk about qualia, sense-datum, raw feels and other names for the contents of our subjective experience and so little time spent examining them subjectively. Philosophers generally respect the methods of the natural sciences yet ignore a mode of examination of subjective experience which can afford a better examination of it. The method amounts to looking more closely. This is the method of mindfulness meditation in Buddhism. One sits still, closes the eyes and “watches,” experiences consciously or examines the arising and passing of thoughts, emotions or feelings and sensations. It may be objected that mindful examination of subjective experience is not a transparent or simple examining, but the same could be said for the microscope. The method itself is quite simple. Sit still for a longish period of time – longer than we normally sit still – and examine the contents of experience as they arise. The experience is one of seeing what is already there but more closely. We already do this in small doses when we check in to know what we are feeling. So why not look more closely for a sustained amount of time? It’s odd that a field with a strong empiricist tradition wouldn’t think to examine their subject matter more closely.
From Meyerhoff's current blog - philosophy autobiography
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Bells ring, there is a crack in everything
I was there in Kilmainham, Dublin, last June to see this amazing performance of the song Anthem by Leonard Cohen.
A full and clear audio version foregrounded with pretty pictures is here:
A full and clear audio version foregrounded with pretty pictures is here:
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About Me
- goinghome
- I am on a curiodyssey. Inherent is the desire for freedom and at the same time, a sense of its elusive ineffability, of constraints on obtaining or maintaining the state. Meditations on life, art, philosophy, humour and manifest phenomena can open doors, unlock chains or just lift the illusion of feeling alone.