Seen in the international foods aisle at a local grocery store...
By the way, Demetrius has been working on some new designs. And "Stephen Colbear" has a few things to say...
Haloscan comment thread
When I first signed on with The Heart Coherence Team, I was wondering how we were going to get 10% of the world's population hooked up to Gizmo. That's about 700 million units, and a daunting task for any relatively unknown corporate venture, and an impossibly lofty goal for a humble street musician. However, the square root of 1% of Earth's population is about 7000. Now THAT'S a manageable short term goal!
The Maharishi Effect is the phenomenon of the rise of coherence in the collective consciousness of any community. Scientific research has clearly demonstrated that when one per cent of the population of a city or town practices Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation Programme, the crime rate significantly decreases. Similarly, when groups of individuals practicing Maharishi’s TM-Sidhi programme with Yogic Flying equal at least the square root of one per cent of a population, there is a significant reduction of crime and accidents, as well as an increase in stock prices, decreased pollution, decreased unemployment, and decreased hostilities between nations.
One of the things that Gizmo does, is it quantifies the meditation process in individual and group settings. Meditation produces internal coherence and, according to scientific studies of the Maharishi Effect, also tends bring coherence to surrounding systems, including the collective consciousness. Excerpt:
I found this Iowa experiment very interesting:Just as a radio transmitter can create waves in the electromagnetic field, individuals constantly create influences on all parts of creation simply because consciousness permeates every aspect of the material universe. To illustrate, if a stone is thrown into a pond, waves are produced that travel throughout the pond. Each wave produces some effect in every part of the pond. Similarly, the wave of individual life, through its activity, produces an influence in all parts of the cosmos.
On the basis of this same principle, the direct experience of self-referral consciousness influences every aspect of the universe, enlivening it with the perfect order and harmony inherent within self-referral consciousness. For this reason, groups of individuals can create very powerful effects in the environment...through their self-referral practice, they enliven every aspect of the universe by stimulating its most fundamental constituent, consciousness, and they especially enliven the collective consciousness of the city or province or nation in which they are located.
Another researcher found in 1990 that a significant decline in crime rate, traffic fatality rate, and unemployment (also combined in an index) in the state of Iowa, USA, as a result of the coherence creating group at Maharishi International University (p’s < .05 for each variable). This researcher employed Box-Jenkins time series transfer function analysis of the effect of group size on quality of life.
Effects on National Life
A number of studies have demonstrated significant effects on the quality of life in an entire nation from a coherence creating group. These include decreased crime and accident rates in Holland during three intervention periods (all p’s < .025); increase in the British stock market index (1983); using Box-Jenkins time series impact assessment analysis, researchers in the U.S.A. found a decrease (p = .005) in traffic fatalities when a coherence creating group in Iowa exceeded the square root of one per cent of the nation’s population (1984).
So over the course of a still undetermined amount of time, "Team Gizmo" will place 7000 units worldwide and gather them into the Global Heartlink. (We are currently at about the square root of 1% of the population of Holland.) My guess is that along the way we will be conducting experiments in what the focused intent of a group is capable of in real time. That should be fascinating!
Last swim of the season--with doggies.
Here's a picture of our golden retriever mix, Winnie, meeting a new friend.
by P.D. Eastman (who Daughter in Ohio used to call A. B. Beastman).A dog party!Of course, the dogs at the pool were just the ordinary dog colors, and they weren't partying at the top of a tree, but it was definitely a dog party. And a good, wet, time was had by all.
A big dog party!
Big dogs, little dogs,
red dogs, blue dogs,
yellow dogs, green dogs,
black dogs, and white dogs
are all at a dog party!
What a dog party!
This week the Senate voted on an amendment popularly known as the MoveOn Amendment. It's statement of purpose reads:
To express the sense of the Senate that General David H. Petraeus, Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq, deserves the full support of the Senate and strongly condemn personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all members of the United States Armed Forces.
It passed with a vote of 72 to 25 (3 senators not voting). Below is a list of the Democrats who voted for the amendment:
Baucus (D-MT), Yea
Bayh (D-IN), Yea
Cardin (D-MD), Yea
Carper (D-DE), Yea
Casey (D-PA), Yea
Conrad (D-ND), Yea
Dorgan (D-ND), Yea
Feinstein (D-CA), Yea
Johnson (D-SD), Yea
Klobuchar (D-MN), Yea
Kohl (D-WI), Yea
Landrieu (D-LA), Yea
Leahy (D-VT), Yea
McCaskill (D-MO), Yea
Mikulski (D-MD), Yea
Nelson (D-FL), Yea
Nelson (D-NE), Yea
Pryor (D-AR), Yea
Salazar (D-CO), Yea
Tester (D-MT), Yea
Webb (D-VA), Yea
Both Massachusetts senators voted against.
I am disappointed, more that the Senate wasted time on this silly, symbolic vote than on the results. They have more important things to do. Yet, this amendment hardly comes as a surprise. The Republicans take every oppertunity - manufacture oppertunities - to flont their support for the troops. I don't understand why the Democrats listed above went along with this cheap bit of windowdressing, but that they did shouldn't distract us from the facts.
In every vote in recent years that has actually mattered, such as appropriations for the VA (to provide for those troops who have been wounded and must go through the remainder of their lives with devastating physical and/or psychological injuries), the Republicans form a solid bloc voting "No," while the Democrats form a solid bloc voting "Yes."
Our Lord said, "By their fruits shall ye know them." The MoveOn vote is a silly, childish distraction. Yes, the numver of Democrats who voted in favor annoys any sensible person. But, it is a distraction. Is it more important that these senators voted for this amendment or that they consistently vote for measures that actually support the troops, as well as the rest of the American populus?
Haloscan Comment Link
You'll note that I've added a new banner to the left sidebar. I added it after seeing this post by field negro at My Left Wing. Apparently the big blogs are ignoring this story. Posting the link here doesn't exactly compensate for that, nor can I write much of a stirring entreaty, since I have just barely begun to learn the details of the story myself. But I figured I should at least give it what small bit of additional exposure I can offer.
Haloscan comment thread
"At the end of the day, if there was indeed some Body or presence standing there to judge me, I hoped I would be judged on whether I had lived a true life, not on whether I believed in a certain book, or whether I'd been baptized. If there was indeed a God at the end of my days, I hoped he didn't say, "But you were never a Christian, so you're going the other way from heaven." If so, I was going to reply, "You know what? You're right. Fine."Oh, and on this date in 1895, Daniel David Palmer gave the first chiropractic adjustment.
Hildegard of Bingen, died September 17, 1179
Read more about her here.
Today is also Constitution Day.
Haloscan comment thread
This week I begin a new challenge. I will attempt to locate all of the Gizmos in the world and do a follow up on what is currently being done with them. Starting with their Yahoo User Group, and then seeking further information from the inventor. I want to seek out individual stories, but I also want to locate folks who are using Gizmo in clinical research, and gather their work into a database that all the users can learn from.
From there, I'll begin to gather those who own these units into the Harmonic Module chat room to conduct real time experiments on linking hearts in various locations around the world.A member of the team named Marc will be tweaking the Module controls (which make my eyes glaze over) so that there will be push button sign up similar to Yahoo Messenger, and he's even talking about adding a "Second Life" type of game platform in the future.
This all should keep me busy well into October, as I prepare for my final Holiday Extravaganza. My life is changing so quickly, and I'm really looking forward to what's on the other side of the changes.
Namaste,
The Astral Technician
Haloscan comment thread
Spy Master Admits ErrorMore here.
Intel czar Mike McConnell told Congress a new law helped bring down a terror plot. The facts say otherwise.
Sept. 12, 2007 - In a new embarrassment for the Bush administration's top spymaster, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell is withdrawing an assertion he made to Congress this week that a recently passed electronic-surveillance law helped U.S. authorities foil a major terror plot in Germany.
Some new shared items
Looking past Talk Like a Pirate Day,
, and I transcribed that appearance here. I just found out that he will be coming to speak about that book here in Columbus next month, so that should be interesting.From the comments:
Does anyone know how to show people a High Springs Herald column? I can go to it at this page.
Thanks for the tip, Alachuan Monk!
Guest Column by Charlie Grapski: Look past headline to core of what I fight for
What does it take to have a democracy?Click here for the rest.
It takes citizens. But what does it mean to be a citizen?
Readers of The Herald have been able to follow my continuing struggles with those who run the city of Alachua.
But in the sensationalism of my being banished and banned, trespassed and charged, prosecuted and jailed, it is easy to lose sight of the more fundamental theme of my pursuits.
Son in Ohio told us about this video--we thought it was pretty funny.
Updated shared items yesterday, and will add a few more later today.
Talk Like a Pirate Day is almost here.
Talk amongst yourselves.
Haloscan comment thread
I went to campus today to pick up the textbooks and supplemental resources for the two psych courses I'll be teaching starting next Wednesday. When I got home, I set the stack on the table in front of the couch, intending to start going through them later today. On his way to pick up Daughter in Ohio from the bus, Demetrius said I should come take a look at my cat.
This evening I discovered an article about Alex, based on an interview The Edge did with Dr. Irene Pepperberg. The ending of the piece made me smile, so I thought I'd share that tonight as well.
I never met Alex, but the world is a different place for me now that he is gone. Life seems duller, flatter…and less open to possibilities. But thinking about limited possibilities negates all that he accomplished in his life, and all that he will mean to future generations of parrots, people and animals in general.
Alex taught us many, many things about how the avian brain works. In doing so, he helped define the bonds between human animals and the rest of creation, illuminating a commonality that was unimagined before he showed us his truth. Alex opened the door into his mind—a mind that was so similar to ours that it seemed like coming home, and yet so different that it opened a thousand different doors to the universe.
He was both magical and miraculous. In his home, Alex filled the air with his watch-me-see-mehear-me personality. Alternately cajoling his parrot partners in their learning, and shouting out orders that sent lab assistants scurrying about his room, the atmosphere Alex created was charming and challenging and undeniable. His stupendous presence was a magical experience for those lucky enough to have known him.
For those of us who never knew him, we still felt the miraculous wonder of his being. Alex reached across what we thought was an impenetrable barrier---the barrier between human consciousness and avian consciousness. He reached out to us and let us know him. That is the miracle that was Alex.
His going will leave a huge empty space in the world of science. What he might have accomplished is dismaying in its semantics—the eternal unknowing of what might have been. But we can be grateful for what he was and what he gave to us.
There are some things that the birds do that, colloquially speaking, "just blow us away." We were training Alex to sound out phonemes, not because we want him to read as humans do, but we want to see if he understands that his labels are made up of sounds that can be combined in different ways to make up new words; that is, to demonstrate evidence for segmentation. He babbles at dusk, producing strings like "green, cheen, bean, keen", so we have some evidence for this behavior, but we need more solid data.
Thus we are trying to get him to sound out refrigerator letters, the same way one would train children on phonics. We were doing demos at the Media Lab for our corporate sponsors; we had a very small amount of time scheduled and the visitors wanted to see Alex work. So we put a number of differently colored letters on the tray that we use, put the tray in front of Alex, and asked, "Alex, what sound is blue?" He answers, "Ssss." It was an "s", so we say "Good birdie" and he replies, "Want a nut."
Well, I don't want him sitting there using our limited amount of time to eat a nut, so I tell him to wait, and I ask, "What sound is green?" Alex answers, "Ssshh." He's right, it's "sh," and we go through the routine again: "Good parrot." "Want a nut." "Alex, wait. What sound is orange?" "ch." "Good bird!" "Want a nut." We're going on and on and Alex is clearly getting more and more frustrated. He finally gets very slitty-eyed and he looks at me and states, "Want a nut. Nnn, uh, tuh."
Not only could you imagine him thinking, "Hey, stupid, do I have to spell it for you?" but the point was that he had leaped over where we were and had begun sounding out the letters of the words for us. This was in a sense his way of saying to us, "I know where you're headed! Let's get on with it," which gave us the feeling that we were on the right track with what we were doing. These kinds of things don't happen in the lab on a daily basis, but when they do, they make you realize there's a lot more going on inside these little walnut-sized brains than you might at first imagine.
