Race

If you are curious about what race is and is not, or if you are just interested in the topic, check out this new website put out by the American Anthropological Association:

http://www.understandingrace.org/home.html

dianovo

In hopes that change in this world is possible, a good friend (along with others) has begun a new online community named dianovo.com. People with good, positive intentions do exist in this world - in this country. Here's a slight blurb from one of the founders:

Why dianovo.com?

Dianovo.com is about coming together, realizing that you aren't alone, sharing what you're doing to live in a more green and conscious manner, learning from others how to take it even further, and spreading that knowledge to even more people so that this new way of living can grow even faster. It's about connecting and growing together!

We at Dianovo believe that it isn't too late. The Earth has an amazing capacity for restoring balance, we humans innately want a better way of life, and we're an extremely intelligent and adaptable race of beings when we choose to be.

We believe that there is still time, if we each make changes in our lives now!

So... explore the site, talk to others who are looking to make a difference, and keep the faith... maybe we can work our way out of this mess that we have created!

Signs of Trouble in Alaska...

In this time of wars, famines, disasters, inequalities, and other massive breakdowns of modern society, it can be difficult to make sense of the world and what is actually going on. In this vein, I came across a BBC article by Patricia Cochran, director of the Alaska Native Science Commission, that describes the challenges being faced on the front-lines of the war with global warming. Cochran speaks to the human and environmental challenges that have resulted from the increasing ferocity of coastal storms, with increased wave size, the fast eroding banks along Alaskan rivers, and other inter-related environmental changes that have apparently been accelerated due to global warming. Not surprisingly, these changes and challenges are being faced by communities that are largely comprised of indigenous peoples who once again are left to their own devices in attempts to survive their forced marginality. However, this is seen as a means for hope:

Alaska Native Elders say we must prepare to adapt. This is a simple instruction but it is not so easy to understand what it really means.
Adapting means more than adjusting hunting technologies and what kind of food we eat. It means re-learning how to garner information from a rapidly changing environment. Even science is recognising the value of ancestral knowledge passed on to later generations of natives.
There is a reason native people have been able to survive for centuries in the harshest of conditions, in the strangest of times; it is because of our resilience and our adaptability. And it is that strength from within that our communities now have to rely upon as we face an uncertain future.

It will be fitting and appropriate, as the world continues to deteriorate in so many ways, that the best chance for the survival of humanity lies with the knowledge systems of the planets traditional and indigenous peoples.

Parting Words for '06

"What remains of democracy is largely the right to choose among commodities. Business leaders have long explained the need to impose on the population a 'philosophy of futility and 'lack of purpose in life,' to 'concentrate human attention on the more superficial things that comprise much of fashionable consumption.' Deluged by such propaganda from infancy, people may then accept their meaningless and subordinate lives and forget ridiculous ideas about managing their own affairs. They may abandon their fat to corporate managers and the PR industry and, in the political realm, to the self-described 'intelligent minorities' who serve and administer power."

- from noam chomsky, hegemony or survival

Marijuana Shamanism

December 26, 2006
Global warming may be thawing out the planet and threatening the lives of us and a host of other living species, but some things of interest are popping up as well. In 2003, a mummy of what is believed to be a shaman was found in the northwestern part of China. According to a story in the Peoples Daily Online (China):

Chinese scientists are conducting laboratory work hoping to identify a 2,800-year-old mummy presumably of a shaman in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
The well-preserved mummy of a seemingly Caucasian man with a Roman nose and deep-set eyes was unearthed from a cluster of ancient tombs in 2003 and research work has been going on ever since.
Archeologists found the mummy most intriguing because a sack of marijuana leaves was found buried alongside the corpse.
The mummy remains intact in its original outfit despite the passage of time: leather hat, heavy coat and boots, huge earrings of copper and gold, a turquoise necklace, a copper laced stick in the right hand and a bronze ax in the left, according to Li Xiao, head of the heritage bureau in Turpan.

There are a few interesting things here: the mummy is "seemingly Caucasian"; he has a "sack of marijuana leaves"; and most of the outfit sounds slightly out of place. However, regardless of these conundrums, I would like to bring the marijuana to the forefront. Here is just another example of how long this plant has been a part of the human experience. The presence of the plant with an ancient shaman (who probably used it in religious/healing rites) further points to its potential value as well.
May we all have the chance to know the usefulness of this ancient plant...

maybe this will work...

http://www.globalorgasm.org/

National Nothing To Do Day

From Creative Outbursts (a PA e-zine):

In case you were not aware, this Monday, December 25th is National Nothing To Do Day. Banks, schools, and government buildings will be closed in observance of this wonderful day. In fact, most everywhere will be closed, save for a few lame stores that maybe should be closed instead. Chinese restaurants do not observe the holiday either. The Department of Homeland Scrutiny will be keeping its eye on them.
Ordinarily, I'd waltz downtowne to the local coffeeplace to waste time and harass lame baristas on my off-day. Monday, however, will call for a change of plans, a la the Nothing To Do tradition. An alternative set of plans... involving eggs, karo syrup, and an oven timer. There is only so much time and so many nativity scenes to vandalize.
Of course I kid. Vandalizing nativity scenes means Something To Do, not keeping in the holiday spirit at all. And now if you'll excuse me, I have nothing in the oven and all weekend not to share it.

Enjoy...