If you know me, you know that I don't mean this with a heavy heart. I'm not negative for negativity's sake, merely pragmatic and realistic, which we then roll up our sleeves and get into. We are going to be plunging into poverty soon. It's actually an opportunity, but it will be disruptive and hurt many. The thing to do is hold hands.

I personally have been noticing people squeezing in, making room for each other in ways that are new to many of us. On Craigslist I've noticed people subletting PORTIONS of their living rooms, curtained off. Maybe two in there or three people share the space, like a dorm. You don't see that very often, but it is a way to survive.

The thing to do is be militaristic about it, disciplined. Lay out every possible framework you can, because it *is* stressful to live in close quarters.

Better yet would be to share a principle.

It can be done, and when we admire the Europeans (not make them into Gods, just admire them), it's because they went through this kind of experience, and it did draw them closer.

The hardest journey will be for the people who can't (or won't?) adapt, or use the change as an opportunity to problem-solve and create.

Nobody said living in the military was easy.

Let me tell you a story. It's just my story, there are others.

I stayed in a TINY studio apartment once with a friend of mine who was a struggling actress. A very good actress mind you, with a powerful persona and voice, and commitment, dedication. I was visiting down from art school in Maine.

The room was TINY (I already said that), so camp on the floor, sure. But my friend just felt natural and comfortable suggesting European style, and so we slept in her (double I think) bed together. My reticence wasn't impenetrable obviously, and being an Aquarian I ended up being game, but being lunar also I did hold back at first, wondered about this strange idea. I had never actually slept with anyone before, well, except for boyfriends, but this was a girlfriend, a sister, and I had never even slept with my actual sister!

Anyway, it was fine. And I remember sleeping with another friend another time also, it was simply convenient and cheap.

So! Please don't take this as advocacy of any particular "way" of living, only a story of how when we are pressed, or need to adapt, we can, and the "stress" of it might be optional, depending on how we approach it.

I hope we all get through. I hope flowers grow from this dormant, dark and cold yet fertile time. We simply MUST be warriors, who wear honor on our chests and sleeves, and whose lives are orderly. Laura E. recently committed to decluttering her life and simplifying, it's a fantastic thing to do. Pare down. Help each other, in ALL ways. And if possible, craft a statement about what you're about. Craft a statement of principles. If we find the light again (because you never know), or when we do, it will serve as a ducat, a pressed piece of gold, forged under heat and darkness, to be a treasure.

Blessings be, until we hail yet.

click the image to see a beautiful film

MEXICO CITY – Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the Mayan calendar supposedly "running out" on Dec. 21, 2012. After all, it's not the end of the world.

Or is it?

Definitely not, the Mayan Indian elder insists. "I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff."

It can only get worse for him. Next month Hollywood's "2012" opens in cinemas, featuring earthquakes, meteor showers and a tsunami dumping an aircraft carrier on the White House.

At Cornell University, Ann Martin, who runs the "Curious? Ask an Astronomer" Web site, says people are scared.

"It's too bad that we're getting e-mails from fourth-graders who are saying that they're too young to die," Martin said. "We had a mother of two young children who was afraid she wouldn't live to see them grow up."

Chile Pixtun, a Guatemalan, says the doomsday theories spring from Western, not Mayan ideas.

read more...

Michael Moore's movie, "Capitalism" A Love Story" was a slow starter, but rose to moments where spontaneous hoots and tears flowed in the audience. It's not a blockbuster, but it's a good film, with takeaway moments that are rich for reflection.

The many previews preceding the film were typically commercial, so I wondered how "Capitalism" would begin. Would it visually and energetically flow, and fit within its context? Or would it have a strange and jarring start, like a dose of cold water? I was pleased that it was the former. It flowed and has a hip, artistic beginning.

And yet initially, the story felt slow and unsupported. Moore starts with intimate and personal stories of people who are being foreclosed on -- heartwrenching stories to be sure -- but he doesn't give the background on those stories, like how the people got into debt to begin with. It's a little fuzzy, and without the background, the people come off as mainly whiney. Of course they hurt, but I wanted to know *why* their particular story was an injustice.

At about the 45 minute mark however, the film starts to warm up and get going, specifically with the story of privatized juvenile detention centers which paid a county and local judiciary per headcount of juveniles incarcerated. The heat starts to rise when you hear the stories of the young people jailed for up to a year for, for example, throwing a piece of cooked meat, or arguing in public (no fisticuffs) -- a YEAR! -- without any review or oversight because somebody was profiting from their presence in the for-profit facility. The trauma of one young man who, now free, prefers being alone where he can avoid anyone controlling him, is palpable.

The film moves from there to show corporations which secretly take out insurance policies on workers, and highlights the families of two who died, and who struggled financially after the deaths while the corporations raked in up to $5 million (!) each on the deceased. The question is clear -- if higher payouts occur when someone is healthy and young yet dies, maybe the corporations prefer people to die young rather than live. And should someone be able to purchase a policy on you without your consent?

Next Moore covers airline pilots and it's appalling to discover that commercial pilots, who are responsible for the safety of hundreds of people daily, TYPICALLY make only $17K per year, while carrying a burden of up to $100K in student loans, plus trying to cover regular living expenses. It's not surprising to learn that many pilots have second jobs, and as a result are dangerously tired and overstressed because of their finances. One pilot interviewed says it's common for pilots to qualify for, and use, food stamps. The airlines simply ask them not to make purchases with food stamps while wearing their uniforms.

Moore then rolls through the stock market crash of last year and highlights how everyone in the Treasury Department was (or is) connected with Goldman Sachs, which conveniently was the only big bank still standing after the bloodbath. He nails Reagan and GW Bush, and Clinton somewhat, for basically swallowing, re-packaging, and re-presenting the slick likes sold them by the financial "experts" who had a direct interest in deconstructing our existing, legal, financial protections, for profit -- like Phil Gramm, Donald Regan and Bernie Madoff.

He also completely obliterates the Christian Right's claim that capitalism is God's chosen form of social and economic exchange. One weakness however is that his personal viewpoint is Catholic, which isn't so bad, but he doesn't cover any other spiritual or religious traditions, so I doubt it will effectively break through the Christian Right's fundamentalist wall.

The movie picks up strength when he runs through some history, for example the fact that in the 1940s and 1950s wealthy people were taxed at a 90% tax rate (indeed!), but they still managed to live very comfortable lives, while the healthy pool of common tax receipts (then) was used to build highways and schools, as well as pay watchdogs and inspectors, to keep E Pluribus Unum safe. Jobs were plentiful, homes were affordable, families could afford one parent staying home to care for children, and people had health coverage and paid vacations.

More could have been made of the leaked Citibank letter, addressed to its elite top investors, boasting about how increasing deregulation had put them on a nearly guaranteed "gravy train", with the only real risk being the people waking up and using their votes (which they gloated was unlikely to happen...). He shows the letter, and it's a smoking gun, but rather than pursue the sick thinking behind it, Moore simply uses it as a subtle theme, as he builds his case for the power to change things being inside *us* (because we vote).

The most powerful, moving moments in the film are related to collective action -- like the very successful, worker-owned businesses he highlights, a robotic invention company and Alvarado Street Bakery -- which show that greed-based corporate models are #1, not the only way to do business, and #2, are not even necessarily the most profitable or healthy.

Tears, hoots and hollers erupted in the audience (in me too) during scenes showing workers getting together and staging a sit-in to force corporate owners to pay them their correct severance amounts, and most movingly, when an organized group of neighbors takes over several abandoned homes and puts people in them, rather than having hundreds of unoccupied, foreclosed homes, and also hundreds of homeless families living out of their cars, together turning their neighborhood into a wasteland. They fight the sheriff and win -- it's quite a moment.

Special mention goes to Marcy Kaptur, Representative of Ohio, for being a true watchdog for the people -- she completely RAKES the criminals in government over the coals. And for the sheriff of Wayne County Michigan who, after a certain point, recognizing that increasingly empty neighborhoods were only increasing crime and blight, refused to continue evicting people.

The conceptual heart of the film is probably the reflection on Jonas Salk, inventor of the polio vaccine, who had a comfortable enough life, didn't need more, and so gave away his vaccine for free -- no rapacious pharmaceutical corporation patents or profits needed. And the question of how we could be sold the lie, and swallow it, that everybody who tries really hard... can attain an elite life, in mansions with private jets, like the top 0.5% of the population (a small minority). You wonder how "everybody" (or at least the majority) could EVER swallow the lie that they can fit into the top 0.5%.... It may be more proof that we have become hopelessly stupid, because obviously a majority ("everybody") can NEVER become a minority (top 0.5%).

But while we buy the lie, and remain in a trance, we will be milked. It behooves us to wake up. In Moore's vision that means learning to be satisfied with enough, stop indulging in excess and greed, participating in your community, standing up collectively for what's right and best for all, and voting.

Cinemagraphically, as a film, it could be tighter. But Capitalism is still a fine documentary and Moore raises good questions, illuminates viewpoints not normally discussed, and plants the seeds of hope, that real people, not oligarchs or plutocrats, can say "no" to the many lies the pusher pushes and choose a better way. It's not about left or right, it's about regular folks at the ground level vs. the injustices that rain down from greedy powermongers at the top. We *can* overcome.

Fun!! Who knew? Buzz Aldrin, 79, says he only has two passions, space exploration and hip-hop. From USA Today:

He's walked on the moon and shot down Russian fighter jets over Korea. And now, to make his career complete, astronaut Buzz Aldrin has become.... a rapper. The Apollo 11 space hero, the second man to set foot on the moon 40 years ago, has recorded a hip-hop video called "Rocket Experience" produced by rap superstars Snoop Dogg and Talib Kweli, and featuring Snoop Dogg, Soulja Boy and Quincy Jones.

"I'm not too good at carrying a tune, but I do have rhythm," says Aldrin, who got the idea from a family member who felt the genre would have a broad reach. Aldrin's ShareSpace Foundation, which promotes science and exploration, is one of three beneficiaries of the song's iTunes sales. "I want kids interested in space. It's their future."

The track takes listeners back to the first lunar landing 40 years ago in July. Aldrin's autobiography (with Ken Abraham) is also being released today and is called Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home From the Moon (Harmony, $27. The book plumbs Aldrin's alcoholism battles after following in Neil Armstrong's big bootsteps.

Buzz Aldrin's birthchart (click to enlarge)

This is a time-lapse video of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy rising over Texas from 9:20 PM to 6:43 AM on April 21-22, 2009, during a star party. Pretty awesome...

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party.

Vinessa Nevala

This video provides good insight into Taurus I think.

This is my card for today. O Fool. A beautiful tarot card, I forgot from which deck, if anyone knows let me know. I thought I would send a shoutout. Hello all! How is Easter, or Oestre, doing in your part of the world?

It's glorious here today, amazing how each day can be so, what it is. I don't know how to say it, each day is different, but wow, today, Spring this season, is so beautiful. It could be wetter for my taste ;), but I like when it's moody, brilliant, with elephantous, ambling, saturated clouds blowing light warm, cool, up over, along and through the mountaintops, brushing them, empillowing them, leaving their drench combed off by the trees, to gush down in narrow peat cracks and continue down to bay forests...

Wow is all I can say.

The sun still rises, things will rise and fall, and we will get pulled into our angsts again, but hopefully less so as we move along.

Let me know how you're doing out there, I'd like to hear from you. If you like the comment idea, I can open them on this post, let me know.

Do I write too little, too much?

May this beautiful Fool inspire you today.

Love,

This week in New Scientist:

Why Money Messes With Your Mind

Dough, wonga, greenbacks, cash. Just words, you might say, but they carry an eerie psychological force. Chew them over for a few moments, and you will become a different person. Simply thinking about words associated with money seems to makes us more self-reliant and less inclined to help others. And it gets weirder: just handling cash can take the sting out of social rejection and even diminish physical pain.

Our relationship with money has many facets. Some people seem addicted to accumulating it, while others can't help maxing out their credit cards and find it impossible to save for a rainy day. As we come to understand more about money's effect on us, it is emerging that some people's brains can react to it as they would to a drug, while to others it is like a friend.

[read more at New Scientist.com...]

Anil Ananthaswamy writes today in the New Scientist, "the process has been a challenge, as non-invasive techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging and EEG give either spatial or temporal information but not both."

Read more of the science at:
'Consciousness signature' found spanning the brain

It's an "affront" to lie to us!

I've been talking for years about how the entrenched Christian Right wasn't as monolithic as it seemed. There have been many signals of a growing backlash waiting to happen, within the ranks of Christians themselves. Below is a great clip, from a notable evangelical who has "serendipitously" (Pluto in Cap) broken through and is now speaking out, loud and clear. Have a look, feel the Truth. Man, gets my blood going...

These guys are totally wacked, hilarious, from New Zealand, and the music is good. Men especially, take note... ;) Enjoy!

The unique planetary nebula NGC 2818 is nested inside the open star cluster NGC 2818A. Both the cluster and the nebula reside over 10,000 light-years away, in the southern constellation Pyxis (the Compass).

The New Scientist has a beginner's guide to cosmology called Instant Expert: Cosmology, have a look! It gives a thumbnail view of it all, from the Big Bang to the space-time curve, dark matter, dark energy, etc.

If you want a real trip, a real mind bender, read their article called Our world may be a giant hologram.

Enjoy!

Here's the chart of Barack Obama's inauguration. The 20th amendment of the Constitution sets the TIME of inauguration to be 12:00 noon on January 20th. So here's a chart for our new president's administration. Notice that Venus rules the chart, but the Moon is Void. We might not see the actual "change" we dream of for awhile yet.

[click image to enlarge]

Believe it. A stupendous duet!

The Journal of Neuroscience finally confirms it!

See also:
- Perception
- Neuroscience News
- Functional neuroimaging
- Limbic system

A new Rice University study published in the Journal of Neuroscience found that socioemotional meanings, including sexual ones, are conveyed in human sweat.

Denise Chen, assistant professor of psychology at Rice, looked at how the brains of female volunteers processed and encoded the smell of sexual sweat from men. ... [read more]

Haven't I been saying this for years? :)

It all stems from the University of Pennsylvania study in 2003 which showed that male sweat helps reduce women's tension and regulate their menstrual periods. To read THAT study click here.

Tra la!

D sent me a book for Christmas, called The Soloist, about a homeless man named Nathaniel who had once been an elite music student at Juilliard, but who had had a schizophrenic break and was living rough, like many of the homeless, out of a shopping cart, and sleeping in parks with occasional meals and showers at shelters. The book was written by a Los Angeles Times journalist named Steve Lopez who got to know Nathaniel, tried to help him and ended up doing so, but not as much as he wanted or in the way he wanted. In the process Lopez's life is also transformed.

It's a good book with many layers, not the least of which is the impact of a personal view into the world of homelessness, Skid Row, and the walking wounded, the mentally ill -- a world most people deny. The description of reality among the homeless is particularly humbling. Set in LA, it's shocking to really consider that Skid Row is only a short distance from Beverly Hills and Bel Air. For all the wealth so close, the squalor and conditions the homeless live in are outrageous.

So this book has been part of my entry into 2009. And today, who knows why, I had an unusual encounter myself.

I was walking down the main street of my town at about 5:00 pm, returning to my apartment from the Post Office. In front of the Christian bookstore a woman stopped me and asked for help. She had a fairly nice jacket on, and a handbag, but it was clear she was cold. She was very sweet and respectful; in fact, she was very clear-minded and articulate. But she asked me about food and shelter. She said she was down to her last $11. She had stayed in a nearby motel for $53 the night before and didn't have a car. She had lost her place about two weeks ago and had been staying at various motels and taking buses around to different agencies, trying to find shelter. No one had been able to help. The regular shelters are all full or overflowing, and programs like St. Vincent de Paul had been unable to help because she didn't fit into a program category -- she wasn't a veteran, disabled, battered, mentally ill, and she didn't have a family. She had been working as a purchasing agent for a Federally funded Jobs Corps program, but cutbacks had left her unemployed. I didn't get too many more details -- the critical thing was that it was Friday evening, cold and getting dark, and the places she could get help from were all closing for the weekend. She was at the Christian bookstore hoping they would know something about churches which might shelter people -- but they couldn't help. (good Christians!) So there she was, and she reached out to me. Her name was Cora.

I had made a deal with myself awhile back that if anyone asked I would give something (ask and ye shall receive). But obviously just giving her a dollar or two and moving on wasn't right. While she was talking I kept thinking about how outrageous it is that more public help isn't available for the growing number of people who have become homeless due to the bad economic times. Plus the fact that she's a woman, and I am extremely sensitive to the fact that women are vulnerable to being raped out on the street, without a safe, warm place to sleep.

I didn't immediately offer anything tangible -- she hadn't actually asked for anything specific, just "help." My first thought was to bring her home with me, but I also knew I needed to keep a boundary on that. I am often too easy and open with people, I didn't really know her, and once you've taken someone into your space it's too difficult to get them to leave. I need my safe place also.

So I listened and tried to think up other options, other places for her to go and try, or places to simply be for the night. She told me how she also used to facilitate a CoDA group (for codependents) and talked of God, saying she had to have faith, but also asking for guidance -- Tell me what to do, Lord, where am I supposed to go?

Since she was a 12-stepper, I knew I could be honest. I told her to come back to my apartment building with me, that I could give her some bus tokens and some money, but that I wasn't comfortable with her coming into my apartment. She confirmed that she had no intention of coming into my space, but was just happy to get some help.

I have a bowlful of bus tokens, which I got with pre-tax commuter deductions before I started riding my bike. And I knew they would be useful for her because she could then get around without spending money. And the flexibility of movement would increase her options. So I went upstairs while she waited on the little bench in front of my building to get them.

I emptied nearly the whole bowl of tokens into a little pouch (there were a lot of them, maybe 50?), and added all the cash I had on me -- $46. Then I thought about food. My fridge is kinda empty at the moment, I wished I'd had some cheese, hard boiled eggs, or something dense with a lot of protein and calories. But what I was able to throw into a bag were two little soymilks and eight trailmix bars. At least they would keep her fed for a little while.

When I went downstairs, I gave her my offerings, a hug, and found myself crying. She was so grateful, but I wish I could have done more. I wish the circumstance didn't exist. And truthfully, there but for the grace of God go I.

I don't know how she'll spend my $46. Maybe she'll add it to her $11 and pay for another night in a motel, hoping to find new answers tomorrow. Or maybe she'll get a meal, then ride the bus to various 24-hour hangouts like Safeway or Denny's. But I wished her safekeeping and watched her go. She called me an angel, with the light of God on me, and said she would pray for me also.

Twelve step guidelines will tell you that this online confession is against the program. We are encouraged to do something good every day but tell no one, keeping it between God and ourselves so as not to get an ego boost from it. But this was a little bit bigger than what I am used to, and I don't feel better about myself at all. In fact I feel like shit because I couldn't do more. I'm also angry at this crazy modern life we lead, myself included, inside our various bubbles, concerned about the masses, but unconcerned about individuals up close and personal.

Usually my ability to take care of myself is a source of self-esteem. I live a simple life and am not interested in big houses, fine cars, a showy wardrobe, etc. I live modestly, pay my bills, save a little, and manage my affairs. Even so, it's not always easy. I don't floss enough, I don't exercise enough, I usually forget to take iron and calcium (I'm supposed to), and I sometimes also forget to take my medication for high blood pressure. I actually also don't take blood pressure readings as often as I'm supposed to, I tend to let my annual gyn exams and mammograms slide, I don't get haircuts until my hair is extremely raggedy, I don't take the time to cut my nails until it's an emergency, and my poor dry skin almost never gets moisturized. There are expired jars of dead sauces in my fridge, I rarely mop my floors, dust accumulates faster than I can bother to clear it away, and my plants often wilt and cry out for water (I don't kill them, I just make them beg...).

Self care isn't easy, but other than these items I like to think I do okay. Still I'm looking around at my little 600 square foot apartment now and so much seems frivolous. What about these antiques, and these two computers with wireless router, network storage, scanner, etc? What about these 4 bookcases with 800 books, and these drums? What about this yoga ball, this guitar, this air conditioner? Two bikes? A massage table? Nice dishes, nice glasses, a rice cooker?

The mood will pass I know. But Cora also brought with her a message. The shelters are overloaded already, and the people who work in them are reporting a continually increasing number of people asking for help. The need is expected to continue to rise dramatically and not go down anytime soon. So what to do?

Firstly, what am I going to do if I get laid off and can no longer afford rent? What's my plan?

And if I'm blessed enough to keep my job, how are we all going to cope with more and more people on the street, asking for help?

I am going to start inquiring about resources and how I can help or contribute next week, when 2009 really gets underway. I hope you will join me in making a plan for yourself -- and also a plan for how to deal with more and more needy people everywhere around.

Please say a prayer for Cora, an articulate, clear-minded ex-purchasing agent, cold on the streets this evening. By the way, I looked up the name Cora, it's a variant of Kore, daughter of Demeter, otherwise known as Persephone.

Hear the voice of Mama Liberty:


Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
. . .

Interesting Aquarian news today.

By Dave Bullock
12.20.08

LOS ANGELES — A new MacGyver-esque cellphone hack could bring cheap, on-the-spot disease detection to even the most remote villages on the planet. Using only an LED, plastic light filter and some wires, scientists at UCLA have modded a cellphone into a portable blood tester capable of detecting HIV, malaria and other illnesses. <read more about microscope cellphone ...>

New York Times
December 8, 2008
By Tara Parker-Pope

How, when and where a child is born may all play a role in lifetime asthma risk, new studies suggest.

Asthma occurs when airways in the lungs spasm and swell, restricting the supply of oxygen. The incidence of asthma in the United States has risen steadily for more than two decades, and about 6 percent of children now have asthma, up from less than 4 percent in 1980, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The reasons for the increase are not entirely clear. Genetics probably plays a role in the risk for asthma, but an array of environmental factors — pollen, dust, animal dander, mold, cockroach feces, cigarettes, air pollution, viruses and cold air — have all been implicated in its development.

This month, The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine is reporting that children born in the fall have a 30 percent higher risk for asthma than those born in other seasons. The finding is based on a review of birth and medical records of over 95,000 children in Tennessee.

A possible explanation is that autumn babies tend to be about 4 months old at the peak of cold and flu season. By that age, many babies are in day care and regularly exposed to the outside world.

And while their lungs are still developing, they have yet to develop strong immune systems. As a result, fall babies are at particular risk to contract a severe winter virus, which may in turn increase their risk for asthma.

The lead researcher, Dr. Tina V. Hartert, director of the Center for Asthma Research and Environmental Health at Vanderbilt University, says some parents with a high familial risk for asthma may want to consider timing conception to avoid a fall birth.

But since that is impractical for many people, Dr. Hartert says, all parents should take precautions to reduce a baby’s risk of a respiratory infection.

“It’s premature to say you should time conception so children aren’t born in the fall,” she said. “But it’s good sense to use typical hygienic measures to try and prevent illness.”

As for how a baby is born, Swiss researchers are reporting in the journal Thorax this month that a Caesarean delivery is linked to a much higher risk for asthma compared with babies born vaginally.

In a study of nearly 3,000 children, the researchers found that 12 percent had been given a diagnosis of asthma by age 8. In that group, those born by C-section were nearly 80 percent more likely than the others to develop asthma. The explanation may be that a vaginal birth “primes” a baby’s immune system by exposing it to bacteria as it moves through the birth canal.

Finally, researchers at Tufts reported last month in The Journal of Asthma that a baby’s place of birth also influences asthma risk. In a study of black families in Dorchester, Mass., they found that babies born in the United States were more likely to have asthma than black children born outside the country.

The reason for the disparity is not clear, but the sterile conditions under which American babies are born may be a factor. Babies in developing countries encounter more infections, so they may be better equipped to withstand less serious assaults associated with asthma, like mold and dust mites.

I'm thinking this is not much of a surprise....

I stumbled on this amazingly beautiful piece of film handiwork today, from the 60s, like a dream. Enjoy!