Thursday, May 22, 2008

Infinitesimals

quote



Infinitesimals have been used to express the idea of objects so small that there is no way to see them or to measure them. For everyday life, an infinitesimal object is an object which is smaller than any possible measure. When used as an adjective in the vernacular, "infinitesimal" means extremely small, but not necessarily "infinitely small".



unquote



from wikipedia



well...on PBS there was a show with a Naturalist standing beside a lake in Central Park...making the lament...that if he had another life to live he'd be a Naturalist again...but would concentrate on micro organisms...one should be careful what one one wishes for...if the transmigration of souls has merit...one might come back as a micro organism!...brb...well...I went on a long search trying to find the bit in Ulysses by James Joyce about metampsychosis...reincarnation...and found this!...



How Did Buddhism Influence James Joyce and Kenji Miyazawa?



http://p-www.iwate-pu.ac.jp/~acro-ito/Joycean_Essays/J&KM_Buddha.html



and it pinpoints the take I was looking for...



quote



In the 4th episode Calypso, Bloom answers for Molly's question about metempsychosis. Bloom explains 1) Reincarnation and 2) metempsychosis:
1. Some people believe, he said, that we go on living in another body after death, that we lived before. They call it reincar- nation. That we all lived before on the earth thousands of years ago or some other planet. They say we have forgotten it. Some say they remember their past lives. (U 4.362-65)2. Metempsychosis, he said, is what the ancient Greeks called it. They used to believe you could be changed into an animal or a tree, for instance.What they called nymphs, for example. (U 4.375-77)



unquote



I gave my Kenji book of tales to a good friend a long time ago...and I spent a lot of money for it!...but was so taken with the tales that I had to have it...this was like one of the first expensive hardback books I ever bought just to read...thinking of text books and such...bought lots of those!...brb....well..it was called Winds from Afar...and can be found for bargan prices now!...



But this fellow standing by the Lake in Central Park...brb...he started up something that's on the web now called EOL...Encyclopedia of Life...



quote



Become a curator for a species page. Volunteer to be the curator (authenticator) for one or more of the minimal species pages. To do so, click here and send us your name, institutional affiliation, and the name(s) of the page(s) you would like to curate.



http://www.eol.org/



unquote



That's almost word for word an idea I posted to GEnie twenty some years ago...what I had in mind was everyone to adopt their favorite critter..species...and sort of sponser it....it was an idea to confront the fact that most people dont know what specie are endangered because they simply never heard of them!...and I envisioned everyone with their own web page...well...it would be a blog now...



and now I can explain something!....I wanted to chose a dolphin species...and when I began studying out the USS Panay...I came on the story of the Yangtze Baiji Dolphin...and adopted them...along with the Panay of course...the Yangtze White Dolphins are gone now...sigh..

“He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars" James Joyce

I snagged that from a myspace google page bit...the page opened...played loud music...and wouldn't shut off!...dont know where Joyce said it...

And Fergusons on again..keeping me awake!..or asleep...maybe I'm a butterfly!

Here's wiki's bio of E.O.Wilson..the fellow by the lake...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._O._Wilson

and EOL just started up in Feb. 2008...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_Life

DavidDavid

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Trying to Stay Awake

The Sufis have a kinda slogan..."we're asleep in this world"...or something like that...brb...



quote

THE PROGRESS OF MAN



by Rumi


First he appeared in the realm inanimate;

Thence came into the world of plants and lived

The plant-life many a year, nor called to mind

What he had been; then took the onward way

To animal existence, and once more

Remembers naught of what life vegetive,

Save when he feels himself moved with desire

Towards it in the season of sweet flowers,

As babes that seek the breast and know not why.

Again the wise Creator whom thou knowest

Uplifted him from animality

To Man's estate; and so from realm to realm

Advancing, he became intelligent,

Cunning and keen of wit, as he is now.

No memory of his past abides with him,

And from his present soul he shall be changes.

Though he is fallen asleep, God will not leave him

In this forgetfulness. Awakened, he

Will laugh to think what troublous dreams he had.

And wonder how his happy state of being

He could forget, and not perceive that all

Those pains and sorrows were the effect of sleep

And guile and vain illusion.

So this world

Seems lasting, though 'tis but the sleepers' dream;

Who, when the appointed

Day shall dawn, escapes

From dark imaginings that haunted him,

And turns with laughter on his phantom griefs

When he beholds his everlasting home.



translation
R. A. Nicholson



http://www.armory.com/~thrace/sufi/poems.html


unquote



Starting out on the evening walkabout behind the Cabin, I was asked...well...it was 'Hello, how are you doing?"...the usual greeting!...and I answered...'Trying to stay awake!"....and I meant it literally...as I had just woke up from a nap...and felt like curling up some more!....but on the walk about I got to thinking....the 'close observation of Nature' effort is like trying to stay awake...awake to Nature inspite of all the hullabaloo!...and I recollected the Sufi slogan...but hadn't seen Rumi's bit I find tonight!...which is knockdown...



quote again...



Remembers naught of what life vegetive,
Save when he feels himself moved with desire
Towards it in the season of sweet flowers,
As babes that seek the breast and know not why.



unquote...

but let me get the 'sleep' bit I'm more familiar with...

quote

Buddha founded his Path on the human fact of suffering. Islam gives the basic situation in which we find ourselves a slightly different interpretation: man in his ordinary state of consciousness is literally asleep ("and when he dies he wakes," as Mohammad said). He lives in a dream, whether of enjoyment or suffering - a phenomenal, illusory existence. Only his lower self is awake, his "carnal soul." Whether he feels so or not, he is miserable. But potentially the situation can be changed, for ultimately man is not identical with his lower self. (The Prince of Balkh, Ibrahim Adham, lost in the desert while hunting, chased a magic stag, which turned on him and asked, "Were you born for this?") Man's authentic existence is in the Divine; he has a higher Self, which is true; he can attain felicity, even before death ("Die before you die," said the Prophet). The call comes: to flight, migration, a journey beyond the limitations of world and self.



Introduction to the Sufi Path
by Peter Lamborn Wilson

http://www.kheper.net/topics/Islamic_esotericism/introduction.htm

unquote

That's taken from the top of the search...but let me find Shah's take...brb...

quote

This is a 1972 mass market pb printing from Penguin in very good condition with no marks other than light stains on page edges. Aptly titled, "Reflections," is a collection of fables, aphorisms, and statements that challenge the conditioned, assumptive manner we use when thinking of and interacting with others and ourselves. These reflections-whose effect is similar to being shaken out of sleep-offer insight on many levels.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Reflections-by-Idries-Shah-1972-Fables-in-Sufi-Trad_W0QQitemZ170220715018QQcmdZViewItem

unquote

there should be a better bit somewhere...brb...oh...here's a good long tale that address the question..."What do the Sufi's mean..."To be in the world but not of it.""...

http://www.wie.org/j18/bayrak.asp

But it's a theologon's argument...and isn't going to stop global warming...where is that other Sufi slogan!..."Trust in God...and tie up your donkey!"

quote

‘Trust in God, but tie your camel first.’ The economic organization of the trans-Saharan slave trade between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries...

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=68E6B1CBB3159AA1C1EC347EF7F65F7D.tomcat1?fromPage=online&aid=454808

or the guest workers in Arabia...

that slogan attributed to Mohammed gets plugged into a lot of things..

here's a whole list of 'camel' proverbs...

http://creativeproverbs.com/cgi-bin/sql_search3cp.cgi?boolean=and&field=all&frank=all&keyword=camel

well...nothing much can fit into a nutshell...brb...

quote

The central concept in Sufism is love. Dervishes—the name given to initiates of sufi orders—believe that love is a projection of the essence of God to the universe.They believe that God desires to recognize beauty, and as if one looks at a mirror to see oneself, God looks at himself within the dynamics of nature. This is substantiated using the famous Hadith Qudsi (extra-Qur'anic utterance of God): "I was a hidden treasure, and I wanted to be known, so I created Creation." Since they believe that everything is a reflection of God, ...

http://www.experiencefestival.com/transmigration_of_souls/page/2

unquote

I suppose I can curl up with that one!

DavidDavid

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Outstanding Remarkable Values

Here's link to the Park Service's page...which is called The Merced River Plan...insomuch as the River runs through it all!

http://www.nps.gov/yose/parkmgmt/newmrp.htm

and here's a curio...

quote

Topic Questions Instructions: There are six draft Outstandingly Remarkable Values identified in this report. Please specify which ORV(s) you are providing comments for in your response. Topic Questions: Guidelines for determining ORVs are provided in the Interagency Wild and Scenic Rivers Coordinating Council's "The Wild & Scenic River Study Process." These guidelines state that a Wild and Scenic River must be free-flowing and possess one or more ORVs. To be assessed as outstandingly remarkable, a value must be both river-related AND a unique, rare, or exemplary feature that is significant at a comparative regional or national scale.Do the draft ORV statements in this report meet these criteria?Do the statements accurately capture the values that make the Merced River and South Fork Merced River "outstandingly remarkable"? http://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?parkId=347&projectId=18982&documentID=22564

unquote

and here's the form to make an online comment report:

http://parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?parkID=347&projectID=18982&documentId=22564

I imagine this might be a little like writing to the Governor....surley it'll be read...and shared with other commenteers!...and of course responded to!

There are scehduled public hearings where comments can be made...current one is delayed it seems.... I'll have to figure out how to condense fivehundred gigs of pics and clips, and the walkabouts, into that comment form!

Or I could just send a link to Tree in the Door...

Something to think on...

quote

Biological – Riparian areas and low-elevation meadows are the most productive communities in Yosemite Valley. The high quality and large extent of riparian, wetland, and other riverine areas provide rich habitat for a diversity of river-related species, including special-status species, neotropical migrant songbirds, and numerous bat species.

unquote

Oh...it's all generalities...I did a watercolor...2003... looking across the Merced from opposite Housekeeping...just west of Stoneman Bridge...so there I'm looking at the bank just below the road...and into the forest on the far side of the road...well... that forest is now a city...the new housing....a sidebyside then and now....but that housing is one of the most important things...and needed desperately...to keep up with the larger forest become a city!...and that's how it's gone...and will go...one wonders where the construction workers were/are to be housed fed and provided...well...for the housing project they brought their own tikis....

DavidDavid

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Thread Comments

a google groups search brings the following thread up...which counsels to 'quote in full only'...okay...



quote



The Truth About the Yosemite Valley Plan
A Development Plan, not a Restoration Plan Cost: $441,000,000 -- 94% of which would fund construction projects (information in this sheet from the Yosemite Valley Plan and other documents)
In Yosemite Valley: * The asphalted surface area of Yosemite Valley would increase significantly (facilitated by an asphalt batch plant to be constructed in Yosemite for this purpose) * Approximately half of the Valley's roadways would be significantly widened or realigned, cutting down historic oaks and impacting River zones (including Southside Dr) * A ten-acre traffic check station is planned for the pristine West Valley (El Cap turnaround) * A new segment of road would be built at Yosemite Lodge much closer to the River than the existing segment, bulldozed through riparian and forest areas (Northside Dr.) * A 22-bay urban style bus station would be built in Yosemite Village, and Y. Village would increase in size * More than 500 round trip diesel buses projected daily during peak season,1 shuttle arriving every 1.4 minutes * Air pollution, including deadly small particulates, and noise levels would increase * A 14 acre parking lot to be paved in a National Park Service identified "Highly Valued Resource Area" adjacent to the Merced River -- Camp 6 (Instead continue the existing 50 yr. old Curry day-parking) * Annual Park transportation operating costs would increase more than 5 times from $1,770,000 to $10,131,000 (Who will pay?) * So-called lodging "reductions" focus on removal of modest rustic cabins and tent-cabins in favor of constructing and/or renovating hundreds of new, more upscale Valley hotel rooms (inappropriately characterized as "rustic" by the National park Service) ; Yosemite Lodge and Curry complexes would expand beyond their current borders. * Almost 40% of the 800 pre-flood campsites were already closed in 1997 before the Valley Plan (accounting for most of the claimed restoration in the Valley Plan -- lodging generates concession $, camping does not) * Restaurant seating in Yosemite Valley would significantly expand * More development requires more employees which requires more housing (numbers of employees, support facilities, and operating costs significantly increase) * Construction would destroy or degrade scores of native American prehistoric sites * New bridges and new and widened pathways would be constructed through the 56-acre braided stream area of Lower Yosemite Fall preventing natural sideways stream meandering, impacting wetlands, degrading and destroying wildlife habitat, traditional Miwuk gathering areas and archeology (see Lower Yosemite Fall sheet)
Outside Yosemite Valley: * Extensive parking areas are planned replete with commercial services producing development and sprawl * A 600' road segment would be plowed through an intact Yosemite National Park forest to facilitate private development (at Hazel Green) * Administrative stables would be moved to a sensitive low elevation meadow/wetland habitat, requiring the trucking of horses and the widening of roadways (McCauley Meadow -- this should be designated Wilderness) * A black oak sloped Park woodland is in the works to be traded and graded for a private lodging development. (Wawona, SDA Camp) Pristine Park wetlands would be traded to a developer at El Portal (Fischer exchange) * Construction would occur in sensitive habitat and endangered species foraging areas (e.g. Great Gray Owl) * Large new tracts of employee housing and administrative development would be built on undisturbed land at El Portal, Wawona, and/or Foresta
permission is granted to reproduce or copy this in full only -



http://groups.google.com/group/rec.climbing/browse_frm/thread/ac7b27edc68fa707/84c2991370d3c793?hl=en&lnk=st&q=yosemite+valley+plan#84c2991370d3c793



unquote

Oh..to post I had to delete a little..that was causing an error...email of source...but web link takes one to that...



and to reiterate...



from above



A new segment of road would be built at Yosemite Lodge much closer to the River than the existing segment, bulldozed through riparian and forest areas (Northside Dr.)



That thread petered out in 2004...brb...here a more recent...



http://groups.google.com/group/parklandsupdate/browse_frm/thread/3cc4936d879a410/add9bd24dc9ecc29?hl=en&lnk=gst&q=yosemite#add9bd24dc9ecc29



and this group might be one to look at for Plan news...or events...or..dustups!...though it appears pretty staid!...



http://groups.google.com/group/parklandsupdate?hl=en



Google groups is the usenet...and would be a fine place for a transparent discussion of the Valley...that may evolve a kinda 'self correcting' movement...I know from jfk that the discussions in the groups...while they wobble widely at the beginning of a thread...usually arrive at a kinda consensus...or accuracy...it's hard to describe...last night Charlie Rose interviewed a computer web futurists who pointed out that wikipedia...after much doubts...has blossomed...and a main reason is that it 'self corrects'...



And the futurist noted such self correcting could work in over venues...and I'm curious to think how the 'self correcting'...volunteers sorting out problems in the posts...could tie together with the new concept of 'transparency'...and actually solve some problems!...in the instance of the Valley...nearly all the groups involved are volunteer groups...and they seek 'transparency' from the NPS...and from the culled information try to work out a Plan....the whole effort being grass roots rather than a top down decreeing officialdom...which is exactly the problem the Futurist was trying to articulate!...in the context of the web becoming restricted due to security vulnerabilities...will an officialdom make decrees we will all follow?...or can a grass roots discussion evolve a kinda decorum...and set in place voluntary restraints......



oh...a report of lots of new grafitti in the trees and boulders up the Mist Trail...reporter asked me if I knew the reason...Vandals!..I'd say...



one problem with the groups is that the sysops are so ruthless in trimming spurious posts...that only a few...and usually the same old few!...get posts put up...the kinda comment threads one sees on youtube don't appear in the groups...they are ..scrupulous!...but that's is one on the major 'self corrections'...flaming posts became taboo...



for awhile all posters...making a blog...were beset by spammers...computer driven spam...but now with the 'enter the code you see' gate...that's helped...and is the kinda innovation the web has to come up with to keep going!



DavidDavid

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Comments on the Plan

Comments on the Plan are kinda hard to find!...brb...

quote

RIGHT NOW, the National Park Service, which has heretofore cherished Yosemite, seems intent on converting this temple into a profit center, with pricey hotels, scant camping, few modest accommodations, wider roads to field bigger diesel buses, ecological roadside mayhem, atmospheric damage and requiring people who want to celebrate Yosemite Valley to park outside the park in various still unspoiled places that are soon to be paved. This is all to exploit what you can do when you have $200 million or $300 million dollars to spend instead of the discipline former National Park Service Director Newton Drury enjoyed when he said, "We have no money, therefore we can do no harm."


Published on Monday, November 20, 2000 in the San Francisco Chronicle
David Brower on the Yosemite Valley Plan
by David Brower

http://www.commondreams.org/views/112000-105.htm

unquote

Ever since Mineral King...when the development there was halted...there's been a kinda tussle over things in the Sierra!...brb...

quote

Forest Service bows to Bush Administration and backslides on Emigrant Wilderness dams
The Stanislaus Forest, under political pressure from the Bush Administration, has recently decided to re-open the issue of whether or not to allow human-made checkdams in the Emigrant Wilderness to deteriorate and to eventually disappear, or to artificially maintain them.
What is at stake is not only the integrity of the native aquatic ecosystem impacted by these checkdams but also whether development projects should be allowed and tolerated inside designated wilderness. By allowing these structures to be "reconstructed" the Forest Service is saying that wilderness will be managed by special interest groups, not according to the intent of the Wilderness Act.

http://www.calwild.org/action/alert_022603.php

unquote

That's about Emigrant Meadow, which I hiked through in '73, and saw incongruously a small bus crossing in the distance on a dirt road!.....brb

wiki's Mineral King take...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney's_Mineral_King_Ski_Resort#cite_note-MK-webcam-1

wiki's Emigrant Meadow...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emigrant_Wilderness

Sierra Club take on Valley Plan...

quote

Park Service Plans to Urbanize Yosemite
by Joyce M. Eden and Greg Adair
The coming six to eight months will shape the future of Yosemite National Park for the next century. Preservationists have now worked for one hundred years to push back the tide of human development in the Park, and particularly in Yosemite Valley. With these very goals in mind, Yosemite's General Management Plan (GMP) was drafted, with extensive public input, as a plan to decrease Yosemite's human development and increase ecological restoration.

http://lomaprieta.sierraclub.org/lp9906_Yosemite.html

brb...

quote

The National Park Service installed 10 interpretive wayside exhibits in key areas in the Valley. Areas selected were those that could be affected by actions included in the Draft Yosemite Valley Plan/SEIS, including Camp 4 (Sunnyside Campground), Lower Yosemite Falls, the concession stable, and Curry Village. The signs informed visitors of the potential changes that could occur at each location, and guided visitors to areas where they could receive more information.

http://www.nps.gov/archive/yose/planning/yvp/seis/vol_Ib_p2/chap5_1.html

unquote

NPS site...brb...try to see if it is up to date!!...well...it doesn't jump out..but it looks to be old...

brb...

quote

As many of you know, Plaintiffs Friends of Yosemite Valley prevailed in our lawsuit* against the 2005 Plan for the Merced River in Yosemite. The case has moved into its last phase. The Court will now order the National Park Service (NPS) to prepare a new plan for the Merced. This will be the third time a court has ordered Yosemite to prepare a legally adequate plan for the Merced. The Court will also now rule on our request for injunctive relief. That means that the Court will now order what may happen on the ground in Yosemite. Here is the schedule for the case before the US Federal Court, Eastern District, before the Honorable Anthony Iishi. Please mark your calendars with this important hearing date:

http://www.yosemitecampers.com/discus/messages/4400/3937.html?1179699889

unquote

That's a Friends of Yosemite thread...found with search: Judge Ishi Yosemite Valley Plan...

Judge has an interesting name!..brb...

quote

“I believe in capitalizing on the strengths of our leadership,” Mainella said. “Mike’s ability to implement the Giant Forest restoration, a project that took years of planning, was nothing short of miraculous. He is the man for the job of implementing the funded portion of the Yosemite Valley Plan.”

Mike Tollefson Named Yosemite National Park Superintendent

http://home.nps.gov/applications/release/Detail.cfm?ID=311

unquote...

Giant Forest...been there too...dwelling...brb..

quote

Years of planning, design, and construction are now converging into the realization of Colonel White’s vision. All commercial activity has been removed from Giant Forest. Overnight accommodations have been relocated outside the grove to Wuksachi Village. Demolition of 282 buildings in Giant Forest is complete, and ecological restoration of 231 acres is underway. The conversion of Giant Forest to a day use area is nearly complete.

http://www.nps.gov/archive/seki/snrm/gf/gf_index.htm

unquote

At that page it shows the little cabins that have been removed... a sidebyside before and after!...I worked repairing those little cabins...it was a wonder to change yellow light bulbs at night...the cabins the big trees...listening to the voices and seeing the activities of the campers..."How does one get a job here?"...I've had some of the best jobs ever anywhere....

quote

On these pages you will witness the dramatic transformation (see map) of the Giant Forest from city to forest.

unquote

brb...

quote

Yosemite officials want to see only pedestrians, bicyclists and photogenic wildlife intersecting near the thundering Sierra icon in the future.
But, before that happens, everyone will have to put up with construction dust over the next three years as the park service pours $140 million into perhaps the biggest remake of Yosemite Valley since the 1960s. Up to 300 workers will build everything from sewers to motel rooms.
The sunsets and the granite domes will remain, and the valley will be open to visitors throughout the construction process. But in a few years, you might not recognize the place.
"We're starting to shape what Yosemite Valley will look like many years from now," says Yosemite Superintendent Michael Tollefson.

http://www.yosemite.org/newsroom/clips2003/september/092103.htm

unquote

That's the Yosemite Association...which I pay dues to...that and Sierra Club and PCT...oh...the latter is over due!...

quote

The Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA) extends its congratulations to Tejon Ranch and the environmental community for collaborating on a monumental conservation plan.

http://www.pcta.org/general/news/tejon_ranch.asp

unquote

brb...

quote

And the far-reaching redevelopment of Yosemite Lodge, including a new Indian Cultural Center and some new rooms, is expected to kick off next year. By 2006, Northside Drive will be shifted south of Yosemite Lodge, and the busy intersection near Yosemite Falls will become part of a pedestrian promenade or trail.

unquote

from same YA page...they needn't have sounded so bubbly!...and it's kind of a 'party line'...I'd say...

brb...

searched the blogs...and found a blog page...

http://hikehalfdome.com/blog.html?cq=1&p=705

that has a link...

that doesn't work!...it's supposed to be the court documents...but that's a well centered blog!...

enough for tonight...I'll hunt up..down!...some more commentary tomorrow!

DavidDavid

The Plan

Well...while I'm sorting out what direction to go next...I'll have some thoughts to post about the Plan...the Plans for development in the Incomparable Valley...now...

right now a Judge has put a hold on everything...but on the web are documents which show what was...is... in the works...and after a solid year of wandering around the backyard in all weathers...I have a sense...well...a sense where the following pavements were going to go... and what they were going to cover up!....it is very hard to drill down through the jargon of the Plan...a walk along either side of the Creek from Wee Bridge to the confluence with the Merced...will pretty much give anyone an idea...and an appalling perception...of how callous the following is...

quote:

The proposed action would remove guest lodging and Lodge facility buildings from the Merced River 100-year floodplain. Remaining in the floodplain would be the realigned Northside Drive, registration parking lot, a multi-use paved trail, Lodge parking, overnight bus parking, and the sewage lift station. Upon removal of the guest lodging buildings (Hemlock, Maple, Alder, and Juniper), the maintenance buildings, Wellness Center, and miscellaneous buildings, the 100-year floodplain would be restored to near-natural flow conditions because the major obstacles to high flood flow would be removed. The roads and parking lots proposed for this area could negligibly affect flood flow, but these developments would not be expected to substantially alter the flow path of the flood waters because they would have low relief and would not be constructed on an embankment. As a result, the proposed action would locally improve the conditions of the 100-year floodplain by removing the major flow impediments.

unquote

"Remaining in the floodplain"....that's Owl Woods...paved over..."Northside drived south of the Lodge"....that's a new road turning south at Wee Bridge and crossing over the Creek...I think I know where...just North of the Deer House...on a New Bridge....it would follow the road that goes to the Deer House now...and comes across to somehow hook up again with Northside drive, which is currently closed because of a rock!...the roads and parking lot of course would "negligibly effect high water"....they're pavement after all...but what about what's been paved over!!....it goes on...

quote

The diversion dam located at the confluence of Yosemite Creek and the Merced River would be removed to restore the natural flood regime the Merced River within this reach. Once removed, high flood flow in the Merced River would be unimpeded to inundate portions of the floodplain not previously possible due to the presence of the diversion dam. Removing the diversion dam would return the affected portion of the floodplain to a more natural flow condition. In addition, the riprap revetment currently in place along Yosemite Creek would be removed to restore the natural flow regime along a short stretch of Yosemite Creek.

unquote

I'm not sure why the diversion channel is called a dam...and I dont know when the channel was made...right now water flows into it at daily high water...and flows backs out of it at daily low water...it has preserved a kindof peninsula that goes all the way to Ozone Beach...maybe that's the dam...it's not even noticeable most of the time...it's just a low area in the Forest...as for the rip rap in the Creek...this is silly...remove it and the Creek from the Falls all the way to the Merced will eroded into a disperse Delta...but of course that wouldn't happen if a road is running along the Creek...which is the point...the rip rap would be replaced by the road grading..

source of the quotes...

Chapter V: Merced Wild and Scenic River
http://www.nps.gov/archive/yose/planning/lodge/html/ylarp_ch5.htm

I dont know what is said or goes on in the public hearings...I do know they were busy cutting trees at the Wellness Center three Springs back...and were stopped in their tracks...which is where thing have stood...

There is no area that can be characterized as a 100 yearflood plain....for a few days each Spring there is High Water...I've seen it reach the foundation of the Chapel...but after a few days...it all drops back down...there's no ground water table to speak of in the Sierra...it's all granite...water just runs off...the flood of '97 was a flash flood...and not a terrific eroding force in the Valley...as it was down lower in the Merced canyon...took out the road there...it just floated away a lot of old buildings in the Valley...didn't do a thing to Housekeeping!...I've seen all of that area under water for a few days...but this 100 year flood plain is a refrain...and likely an effort to tie into the funds accumulated to deal with flooding...which are substantial...

The Merced and Tenaya Creek and Yosemite Creek are riprapped where ever they threaten to erode the banks at their turns...have a look at Sugar Pine Bridge...and Three Arch Bridge...whoever did the Bridges...and the riprap...did it beautifully...each Bridge is placed at 'world class views'....and though built with modern cement...the facades...the polygonal stone work..is beautiful...it's the same as at Tunnel View and the 120 Tunnels.

"and the sewage lift station"

I have no idea why it is where it is....and it often lets one know it is where it is!...right now the man hole covers in Cook's are underwater....and the Creek is maybe three feet below the Tiki Temple Outlet...it has a one way cover to anticipate submergence...as does the Temple...which gives it it's unique...Temple look!

There is a 'riparian' border to all the waterways...which should be the real defining "hundred year flood plain".....and over the years development has encroached on it....on one side of the Merced in the canyon is the road...and on the other the old railroad road bed...and there's a lot of riprap...and once into the Valley the roads are often right next to the Merced...can't be helped...the Valley is that narrow...and in truth the road bed has contained the Merced....it's trying to erode right back down a few thousand feet where it was a few thousands of years ago, after all!...but the 'riparian' border has to be respected...scurpulously...it's where all the critters live...

"major obsticles to high flood will have been removed"

Some of the thinking in these plans are just nuts!....there's nothing going to stop the Merced from flooding when conditions are such like in '97.

DavidDavid

Friday, May 9, 2008

Year Blogs

I...dont have a direction any more...no compass point for the blog...insomuch I've pretty much wrapped up the Souvenir...ekphrasis...posts...I thought to run them out for a year...and overshot a bit...



Doing year blogs...y'know...a post everyday for a year...has become a kinda thing to do...though I had no idea such things were in the works when I started...mostly it looks to be photogs over in sites like Flkr that are tasking themselves with doing a photo a day...



In my art classes a refrain by the teacher was that each of us should keep a sketch journal...doing a sketch a day...I did do that...for one semester...and it was just one or two days a week...but I have the journal still...a kinda treasure...and since it has so much to do with being how I got from there to here...I'll scan it in...and maybe task myself for real that sketch a day ordeal!



For now Tree in the Door posts will be kinda sporadic...I have some mundane tasks to do...like housecleaning...going to the Optometrist..and a Giants baseball game next week!



Fauna and Flora...as I suspected it would..has taken on a life of it's own..."It tasks me, Ahab!"



One should be so lucky to have such a task!..

quote

By heavens man, we are turned round and round in this world, like yonder windlass, and fate is the handspike.

unquote

DavidDavid









'

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Ussher Time Line


I got another assignment...look up Ussher's Time Line...there's some question of who comes first...the Sumerian tale of Noah...well...they're Noah...or the Jewish Noah...


PBS story on Hot Dogs..now NOVA with tale of the four winged dinosaur...a must see...Mirco Raptor...think that's it...


but to Ussher...brb...




well...I knew of this...and it's fun to read!...but not much help with Noah...2348BC


brb...the Sumerian story look to be in 2ooo bc or so...but cant nail it down...
and here on amazon is the time chart...
I'll have to look close at the Brown Creepers...
DavidDavid




Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Adam and Eve


NBA was on...now Friends...


I thought a bit on Adam's and Eve's tombs...looked them up before...part of a Wahabi web search back during 911 aftermath...brb...


quote


Ibn Jubayr (twelfth century) mentions only an old dome, “built upon the place where Eve stopped on the way to Meccah.” Yet Al-Idrisi (A.D. 1154) declares Eve’s grave to be at Jeddah. Abd al-Karim (1742) compares it to a parterre, with a little dome in the centre, and the extremities ending in barriers of palisades; the circumference was a hundred and ninety of his steps. In Rooke’s Travels we are told that the tomb is twenty feet long. Ali Bey, who twice visited Jeddah, makes no allusion to it; we may therefore conclude that it had been destroyed by the Wahhabis. Burckhardt, who, I need scarcely say, has been carefully copied by our popular authors, was informed that it was a “rude structure of stone, about four feet in length, two or three feet in height, and as many in breadth”; thus resembling the tomb of Noah, seen in the valley of Al-Buka’a in Syria. Bruce writes: “Two days’ journey from this place (? Meccah or Jeddah) Eve’s grave, of green sods, about fifty yards in length, is shown to this day”; but the great traveller probably never issued from the town-gates. And Sir W. Harris, who could not have visited the Holy Place, repeats, in 1840, that Eve’s grave of green sod is still shown on the barren shore of the Red Sea.” The present structure is clearly modern; anciently, I was told at Jeddah, the sepulchre consisted of a stone at the head, a second at the feet, and the navel-dome.
The idol of Jeddah, in the days of Arab litholatry, was called Sakhrah Tawilah, the Long Stone. May not this stone of Eve be the Moslemized revival of the old idolatry? It is to be observed that the Arabs, if the tombs be admitted as evidence, are inconsistent in their dimensions of the patriarchal stature. The sepulchre of Adam at the Masjid al-Khayf is, like that of Eve, gigantic. That of Noah at Al-Buka’a is a bit of Aqueduct thirty-eight paces long by one and a half wide. Job’s tomb near Hulah (seven parasangs from Kerbela) is small. I have not seen the grave of Moses (south-east of the Red Sea), which is becoming known by the bitumen cups there sold to pilgrims. But Aaron’s sepulchre in the Sinaitic peninsula is of moderate dimensions.


Richard Burton
Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah




lemesee what Sir Richard says about the Kaaba...brb...


quote


So the Persian poet Khakani addresses these two buildings:—
“O Kaabah, thou traveller of the heavens!”

“O Venus, thou fire of the world!”


and


And Al-Shahristani informs us that the Arab philosophers believed this sevenfold circumambulation to be symbolical of the motion of the planets round the sun.


unquote


Sir Richard seems to have visited the place in the company of 'Kim'!


but back to Adam and Eve and their tombs...


quote


To His Majesty Ibn Saud, warlike Sultan of Nejd and King of the Hejaz, came tidings last week of his flourishing son the Amir Faisal, 19-year-old Viceroy of the Hejaz. The tidings were conveyed 500 miles by motor caravan from the Red Sea town of Jidda in the Hejaz, to the Sultan's inland capital, Riyadh, in Nejd. There was it made known that the enlightened son & Viceroy had finally caused to be obliterated that notorious imposture, "The Tomb of Mother Eve," at Jidda.
Quaint, but probably constructed within the last millenium, the bogus "tomb" was an enclosure whose walls marked the outline of a supposedly buried female of gigantic stature. At the head was a raised mound. Midway in the enclosure rose a small whitewashed dome, protecting from the elements a mystic black stone, El Surrah.
Doubtless the young Viceroy Faisal has learned on his two recent trips to England that El Surrah, the navel, is taboo among moderns. Last week he could point with pride to the demolition of the entire "tomb," and to the removal among the debris of El Surrah.


Time




El Surrah?




quote


The tomb is a walled enclosure said to represent the dimensions of the body, about 200 paces long and 15 ft. broad. At the head is a small erection where gifts are deposited, and rather more than half-way down a whitewashed dome encloses a small dark chapel within which is the black stone known as El Surrah, the navel. The grave of Eve is mentioned by Edrisi, but except the black stone nothing bears any aspect of antiquity (see Burton's Pilgrimage, vol. ii.).




unquote


That last account from 1911!


brb...


This site has a tour account of Jeddah...and a bit on Eve's tomb...and a pic of a sculpture that looks like the calligraphy on Idries Shah's The Sufis...apparently a common imagery!


well..where was Adam buried?...


this site has list!




quote


There are at least two explanations for the etymology of the name 'Jeddah'. One is that name means "seashore," since Jeddah is located along the Red Sea coast and is Saudi Arabia's most important commercial port. The more common account has it that the name is derived from jaddah, the Arabic word for "grandmother". According to eastern folk belief, the tomb of Eve (21°29′31″N 39°11′24″E / 21.49194, 39.19), considered the grandmother of humanity, is located in Jeddah. The supposed "Eve Grave" was sealed with concrete by the religious authorities in 1975 as a result of some Muslim pilgrims breaking Islamic tradition by praying at Eve's tomb.




unquote
Adam and Eve by Gustave Klimt
Well...a brief note...this "Souvenir"....is a year old...actually the first post was March 22...but...if I have it right!...May 8 I posted Pocket Pair...which got things started...thought to do a post with beeps and whistles...a music video of 99 Red Balloons...with a kaleidoscope of the images I've snagged...someones probably done something similar...save me the work...brb...
search youtube: 99 red balloons
Oh!...'Pocket Pair' was April 8...well...I thought to call it all a "Year and a Day"...which can be modified to..."A Year and a Month"...in the Incomparable Valley...
DavidDavid




Tuesday, May 6, 2008

The Cube Ship

http://simplymissional.com/2008/05/06/pray-for-mynamar/



Ziusudra...brb....here's wiki...the King is the Sumerian "Noah"...





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziusudra





wiki doesn't give the dimensions of the ship...which are in the Children of Noah book...and I'm trying to confirm them...brb...another take...





http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Post/569052





but no dimensions...brb...





quote





O man of Shuruppak, son of Ubartutu: Tear down the house and build a boat! Abandon wealth and seek living beings! Spurn possessions and keep alive living beings! Make all living beings go up into the boat. The boat which you are to build, its dimensions must measure equal to each other: its length must correspond to its width. Roof it over like the Apsu.





and





On the fifth day I laid out her exterior.It was a field in area,its walls were each 10 times 12 cubits in height,the sides of its top were of equal length, 10 times It cubits each.I laid out its (interior) structure and drew a picture of it (?).I provided it with six decks,thus dividing it into seven (levels).





http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/tab11.htm





unquote





What caught my eye here is that the Ark...is a cube...and Patai says this is nonsense and goes on to show how Noah's Ark has standard ship proportions...though very large!...brb...well...it's catches other writer's attention too...





quote





The Old Testament describes it as a rectangular box with straight sides, no bow, no keel or hull. In fact the Hebrew word used for the ship is that of a box or container. However, the Hebrews can be excused for their preposterous interpretation since they were a land-locked people and had little, if any, experience with ships.
But that is no excuse for the description of the Ark in the Sumerian account of the Deluge. There is is depicted as a cube, if the translators are to be believed. This is not very convincing in view of the fact that the Mesopotamians were a sea-going nation. Sumerians and later peoples were well acquainted with the principles of ship building and seaworthiness. All Sumerian cities had access to the sea and sea-going ships are often described at anchor at these Sumerian ports.
Obviously, there is something amiss in the Sumerian accounts or in the translation and interpretation of the text that is provided. For a sea-going people to describe the Ark as a cube is completely nonsensical.





and





Unlike the three decks of the ark of Noah, the ark of Utnapishtim has seven decks and is then divided into nine sections or compartments. It had a door and some sort of window as well. Traditional translations reports the craft as being an exact cube, with the height, length, and width each being 120 cubits. Since the Akkadian cubit was 20 inches [46 centimeters], the craft would be a perfect cube 200 feet [72 meters] on each side.





and





In modern terms we would describe them as fuel rods since they were associated with the propulsion system of a ship. In this sense, they could be either fuel rods inserted into a nuclear reactor in order to control its energy output or, more probably, tubes or rods filled with solid propellant used in some sort of rocket propulsion system.





FLYING SERPENTS AND DRAGONS
By R. A. Boulay ©1990
Editorial Comments By Roberto Solàrion ©1997
*
Chapter 13
WAS NOAH'S ARK A SAUCER-SHAPED SUBMERSIBLE?





http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=1353183080129161917





well...the author is postulating that the Ark was a spaceship....a many time told tale in Science Fiction...a Generation Ship....but their version seems to be an earthbound saucer...but to continue now for a 'cube ship'...but first..a look at the "People of the Ship"...cube...brb...well...I snagged it from ebay...the cover to Idries Shah's The Sufis....he explains inside that the calligraphy represents in "concrete poem" fashion people aboard a ship...dont have the book...oh..I'll have to retrieve it from ebay...but anyway...there was this notion of either people on a ship..or people waiting for the return of a ship..or something...but..brb...

oh...Hamlet's Mill is on the web...

quote

The first ark was built by Utnapishtim in the Sumerian myth; one learns in different ways that it was a cube-a modest one, measuring 60 x 60 x 60 fathoms, which represents the unit in the sexagesimal system where 60 is written as 1. In another version, there is no ark, just a cubic stone, upon which rests a pillar which reaches from earth to heaven. The stone, cubic or not, is lying under a cedar, or an oak, ready to let loose a flood, without obvious reasons.

Confusing as it is, this seems to provide the new theme. In Jewish legends, it is told that "since the ark disappeared there was a stone in its place. . . which was called foundation stone." It was called foundation stone "because from it the world was founded [or started]." And it is said to lie above the Waters that are below the Holy of Holies.

220

This might look like a dream sequence, but it is buttressed by a very substantial tradition, taken up by the Jews but to be found also in Finno-Ugrian tradition [n17 L. Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews (1954), vol. 4, p. 96; cf. also vol. 1, p. 12; vol. 5, p. 14. We are indebted to Irvin N. Asher for the quotation, as well as for the ones from Jastrow that follow. Cf. V. J. Mansikka, "Der blaue Stein," FUF 11 (1911), p. 2.]. The Jewish story then goes on:

skip and

When David was digging the foundations of the Temple, a shard was found at a depth of 1500 cubits. David was about to lift it when the shard exclaimed: "Thou canst not do it." "Why not?" asked David. "Because I rest upon the abyss." "Since when?" "Since the hour in which the voice of God was heard to utter the words from Sinai, 'I am the Lord, your God,' causing the world to quake and sink into the Abyss. I lie here to cover up the Abyss."

The humble little shard was brought in by pious legend to try to say that what counted was the power of the Holy Name. But the real thing was the cube: either as Utnapishtim's ark or, in other versions, as a stone upon which rests a pillar which reaches from earth to heaven. Even Christ is compared to "a cube-shaped mountain, upon which a tower is erected." [n20 In the ninth simile of the "Pastor of Hermas," according to F. Kampers (Vom Werdegange der abendlandischen Kaisermystik [1924], p. 53).]. Hocart writes that "the Sinhalese frequently placed inside their topes a square stone representing Meru. If they placed in the center of a tope a stone representing the center of the world it must have been that they took the tope to represent the world" [n21 Kingship, p. 179 (quoted by P. Mus, Barabudur [1935], p. 108, n. 1).]—which goes without saying. But it is said otherwise that this stone, the foundation stone, lies under a great tree, and that from under the stone "a wave rose up to the sky."

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/hamlets_mill/hamletmill15.htm

unquote

There is a famous cube space ship in the Star Trek story...the dreaded Borg ship...I told a friend once..."Those first episodes about the Borg are one of the few time that I've seen this science ficiton tale have real menace in it."brb...

here's some generation ships...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_ship

missing from the list is...

quote

In the savage world of the Greene tribe, losing a woman was unforgivable, and Roy had lost his while hunting in the jungle called "the ponics". Disgraced, isolated, he joined the disreputable priest Marapper on a forbidden expedition through Deadways to find the legendary land of Forwards. They were to meet mutants, giants, regimented rats and telepathic rabbits, and the fabled Outsiders. Finally they would confront a secret kept hidden for 23 generations - a secret whose discovery would reveal their origins and destiny even as it destroyed their world!

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/a/brian-aldiss/starship.htm

unquote

Prominant in that story is how general knowledge of the environment...where they actually are...has become partly forgotten and garbled...

Suffice to say that the KAABA Cube may represent Noah's Ark...and the whole tale a garbled memory of a spaceship.

Add to this is that monotheism is self similar to ship board hierarchy..the captain officers crew passengers...and the layout of churches...pews with an alter with priest...to airliners...the priest with back to the congregation...praying to the alter...the alter often with elaborate decoration...to pilots before their controls....this to say Churches resemble ships...the priesthoods captain and ship crew...curiously...I grew up going to a Lutheran Protestant church, which, in memory of Viking Scandanavian heritage, had a roof that looked like a planked Viking ship turned upside down...I used to look up at the ceiling and count the planks during services!

The Earth itself is of course the Ark floating in Space....something that was garbled until Apollo 11 Earthrise from Moon pic!

Apsu?..brb...

quote

Lakes, springs, rivers, wells, and other sources of fresh water were thought to draw their water from the apsû.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aps%C3%BB

unquote

And a thread page that wonders about the same thing!...

quote

Now, Ea (Enki) does dwell, in myths, _in the deep_ (the depths of the Apsu, the freshwater ocean the earth floats upon, in his rectangular cubicle or Apsu dwelling). I thus understand, the Mesopotamian Noah is in a sense dwelling in a seaworthy model of Ea's Apsu house. While in this model of Ea's dwelling, perhaps he was envisioned as being under Ea's divine protection from the flood ?

https://listhost.uchicago.edu/pipermail/ane/2005-August/019284.html

unquote

DavidDavid

Monday, May 5, 2008

Ships of Tarshish




The lawyer show...Law and Order...was on....animal rights trial...defense was animals have rights and so can be justifiably defended...defendant stole monkeys from lab and one bit someone...and the experimental virus in the monkey caused the victim's death...well...that was all a complicated forum to try and come to grips with...'do animals have a soul?'....comparing the dilemma to the plight of American slaves didn't win the case!...the prosecution pointed out the rats carrying bubonic plague are killed mercilessly...and that's a good point....people do have the 'right' to defend themselves against menacing animals...and plants...and bugs and viruses...and surely these all...indeed all Nature...shows little regard for human suffering...which...is one of the big mysteries!...when I come to this point I always think of the movie where the vacationing family finds Bigfoot and brings him home...at first they are fearful...and cruel...but come to know the big fella...and become fast friends...brb...


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092657/





Often in war the enemy is "demonized"....seen as menacing animals...

quote

During World War I, the German threat was depicted as a mad, marauding gorilla with a bloody club.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=79071

unquote

If I remember right...Diane Fosse did much to try and elevate our opinion of gorillas!




I think animal planet is on now...and appropriately they are eradicating rats!...and killer bees and roaches...





but to the Ships of Tarshish...the book 'Children of Noah'...came...and I've just read the intros and preface so far....but took note of Tarshish...I have some 'theories' about all this!...but will wait to read the whole book...brb...





for goodness sake...there's a kinda 'save the children' like charity to provide passage for Soviet Jews to come to Israel...and uses passages from Ezekiel and Isaiah...proclaiming prophecies are coming true...and you can contribute!...





http://www.tarshish.org.il/Tarshish%20Ship.htm





but that's a whole 'nother thing...brb...





quote





As a result of creating the Ships of Antiquity I have concluded that probably no other technology in the history of man has been more important to the spread of civilization, culture and trade in the world than that of the seafaring ship.





Ancient Ships: The Ships of Antiquity
Ancient Ships in art history: The navy of King Solomon and Isreal





http://www.artsales.com/ARTistory/Ancient_Ships/11_solomons_navy.html





unquote





a nice page!!





That's kinda my thought too!...and was working with it in the canoe posts...anyway...for later...oh...the show had the Ghandi quote...brb...


quote


“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”


Ghandi

http://thinkexist.com/quotation/the_greatness_of_a_nation_and_its_moral_progress/189870.html

unquote

on the TV...


They're giggling doing the roaches...

Do you kill them?
I never kill them..I just send them on their merry way...


quote


The pioneer immigrants brought their foul European diseases with them. Aboard their ships, filthy water and human and animal wastes sloshed around in the bilges for a month or more. Men and women who were healthy when they left Europe were sick when they landed —not only from malnutrition but also from infections picked up at sea. Some, such as smallpox, malaria and measles, proved effective biological-warfare weapons, ravaging the Indians, who had no immunity against them. But most of the disease-causing microbes of the Old World took readily to the fertile soil of the New World, and so did the insects and vermin that carry them. The result: for fully three centuries, North America was scourged by deadly epidemics.


Plagues of the Past


http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,914554,00.html?promoid=googlep

unquote





DavidDavid

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Dawn Chorus Day


TV back...out in the Sahara....about Rhinos on Animal Planet...rock drawing of rhino...oh..Wild Kingdom...


I read about the Dawn Chorus in the Chronicle..I think...a few weeks back...and was much taken with the story...as every Memorial Day when I get up before dawn for my hike...the Birds in the backyard...are singing and give me a send off!...and I filed away to look Dawn Chorus up...and last night after posting...I looked it up...and lo and behold...May Fourth is Dawn Chorus Day!....so I got up at four am and did...what I suppose everybody does to celebrate this day...listen for the Birds....it's a neat thing to do...and very glad I found the tale...brb...


quotes



Dawn chorus of birds makes spring really sing
Jerry George
Saturday, April 12, 2008


If you want to experience one of the great treats of nature, take yourself to any tree-shrouded waterway an hour before sunrise. Don't cheat on the time. The chorus is best experienced when you hear the whole show.




International Dawn Chorus Day is the worldwide celebration of Nature's daily Miracle. This year there will be more opportunities than ever to join in the excitement. In the run up to the event events from all over the world and across the UK will be listed on this website, so visit us regularly to see what's planned in your area.




unquotes


I was a little late!...to register...but will be better prepared next time!...now...I'm curious what'a up in blogdom and youtubers...Dawn Chorus wise...brb...oh..now I have note telling I'm unhooked from blogger...now it's saved!...hehe..anyway..brb....well...here's one blog...this is really cool by the way that the blogs are reporting!...search google blogger "dawn chorus"...




I'll have a look at youtube now and grab one!...brb...well...that one's not so simple...there's a song titled Dawn Chorus that skews the search...dawn chorus birds youtube brings things up...and this one has more links...I'd like to find just a little one to link!...




well...I'll just link myself!...




but let me find someones'...brb...


oh...this is very good!


quote


hen American explorers Lewis and Clark navigated the Columbia River in 1805, they first heard the roar of the Pacific Ocean 29 km from the coast--a distance so great that many historians have questioned its accuracy. No such doubts trouble Gordon Hempton, a 45-year-old professional sound collector who won an Emmy Award in 1992 for his Vanishing Dawn Chorus, a recording of the sounds of sunrise from around the globe.


A Voice Crying In The Wilderness
By DAN CRAY /LOS ANGELES




here's link to Hempton's site...




brb...here's one...finally!




went to youtube...then searched...dawn chorus birds...of course there's some others!


well...I could go on..but sleepy!
DavidDavid


Saturday, May 3, 2008

Hidden Hand


TV still broke....y'know...last night looking up after posting some more on 'spontaneous conspiracies'...I found myself reading Adam Smith and his bit on the 'hidden hand'...since the economy is in the news...an appropriate thought thread!!...brb...


quote...quoted in another blog!..


As every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. [The Wealth of Nations, IV.2.9]




unquote


dont know but some 'hidden hands' are way too busy blogging!


anyway..what I was thinking...well first I recollected that movie The Postman and the notion of a 'headless conspiracy'...brb...


quote


The year is 2013 and war has crippled the earth. Into this apocalyptic wasteland comes an enigmatic and initially nameless drifter (Kevin Costner), with his mule named Bill and a talent for Shakespeare.



unquote


brb...


well..I'll have to watch the movie again to remember how I derived "headless conspiracy' from it...and actually there's one going on right now..the enemy Taliban with bin Laden have somehow managed to decentralize themselves so that they crop up spontaneously here and there..."it's like they get together for pick up basketball" one tv panel talker put it...exactly...shooting at US has become a kinda sport.


Anyway...somewhere from all this I'm trying to articulate the notion of conspiracies that have no top down hierarchies...or hard links between members...but rather just sprout up...like fads..hoola hoop like....fans of RockandRoll singers dont think of themselves conspiring...but to critics of the movement...dastardly record burners!...they see the whole pop culture as a conspiracy...and indeed....'from a distance'...fandoms are very conspiracy looking...


And all over the country the awful self similar shooting and mayhem and gangland culture that is besetting...looks...like a conspiracy...but...it's headless...


there is a military tactic...a gureilla war sorta things...that is exactly like this...brb...


well..I just cant recollect and too late to go through old posts that have it!...meanwhile...wiki provides a list!




a pinpoint


quote


he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.


unquote


well...that is very much what the critters do!...they pursue without wavering their own lives...yet somehow they contribute to the wider 'ecosystem'...which 'from a distance'...appears as God's handiwork....the Ultimate Conspirator I'd say!...and all this is likely why Muir had the notion that God made Creation...and then let Creation go it's way...which I kinda like too...anyway..


a conspiracy can motivate people..for good or bad...from a wide range of inputs...some so subtle and fleeting that it's very hard to pin down if they are indeed an influence...on say.... someone's need to collect baseball cards!


Bette Midler on youtube "From a Distance"




One should read Adam Smith with Baseball Cards in mind!!
another pinpoint
quote
By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.
unquote
which makes me wonder if I should just chuck it all and 'follow your bliss'....
sigh...
DavidDavid