Can I Borrow a Ray of Sunshine?

               Holidays For Sale Sentiment Half Off!

In case you haven't figured it out, this will be about emotional transference.  A fancy way of saying emotions about one thing or person, put on another thing or person.  This happens so often, and usually without our being aware we have done it.  Sometimes it's a natural response to repeated experience. Like when a dog beaten by a person in uniform starts barking whenever a person in uniform is around.  This is the same process at play in learning fire burns, you transfer that

experience onto another experience, and avoid the pain.  So far so good, but when you start to proactively use that understanding you get some very creative, if morally questionable results. 

What does this have to do with holidays you might ask?  Well so far I've talked about examples of negative transference, but what about positive.  That is where the holidays come in, when you see a brand use a holiday on the packaging, advertising, and marketing campaigns they are banking on at least some of those pleasant feelings you have will slide on over to them.  Taken to the extreme and you get the diamond market, this might be the most classic marketing example, and one of my personal favorites.  I say favorite with all sarcasm, but the it is amazing, that people were able to take an artificially scarce stone.  Then so completely attach it's value to symbolic for the love between a man and woman.  On top of that, make it a virtually mandatory expense as a part of the marriage rites.  Even people that have read, and already know the scam will turn around a few minutes later, and fall right back under the spell.  

                    Is that Love or Emotional Hijacking?

On a much more intimate and personal level, this same idea started to be taught, with various titles from art of seduction, to the pick up artist.  To be clear, from my perspective there is no way to morally use this kinda of information in this way.  The reason I feel this is simple, it is the same process that happens naturally and honestly when people develop a love relationship. So when someone understands how these work, they no longer work, and if they do work than your being deceptive.

      When two people meet, and the attraction is honest and genuine there is the natural desire to learn everything you can about the other person.  Usually at least early on, the other person is more interesting than we are ourselves.  This real desire to put another before self sets up automatic transference.  When the other person is so rapt in attention to your thoughts, and emotions, it's very easy to see your own feelings reflected back.  This back and forth is the investment of your own emotions into the other, it's the trick of love, that isn't a trick at all till we make it one.

       That is the problem I have in teaching this information as a means of what amounts to conquest. It turns what was one of the most wondrous experiences people can share, and turns it into sales, and

marketing of the most insidious fashion.  When people are taught to use psychological tricks on each other real time, we are on shaky ground.  I am going to single out males because this is primarily being taught to males, with reasons that might be as twisted and messed up as the teaching of it. So if a male with this understanding puts into practice it's not about love, it's about sex.  It is not about the individual woman it is being used on, point of fact it is going to become a numbers game.  So our guy understanding transference, basicly trolls the room, picking out as many possible females to start working.  When a likely prey reveals itself, it's time to move in, separate them from the herd, this is an important step, much easier to work past the defenses of one person, than a group of people.  Once in isolation, the man in question does everything possible to say nothing. The fewer words our fellow says the more likely he is to accomplish his goal.  As I said this is a numbers game, and by the numbers women are far more forgiving as to physical traits than men. Generally it's not the looks of a man that decides if a he is an acceptable mate.  So for our guy, he is not as much working to get her to desire him, as he is trying to not do something stupid to eliminate himself.  This is not as tough as it might seem, being attentive is the foundation.  All it takes is get her to talk about her passions, and lets face it we all like to talk about the things we love.  At this point it's done, the feelings, and passions will be transferred onto our Guy, and all he needs to do is not break the spell.  That is my problem with it, our guy is being taught to be dishonest in order to fulfil natural physical drives we all share. There are no winners in this approach.

            To Worship False Idols

There is much trepidation in the writing and posting of this section, with a great temptation to just leave it off.  Even most that have been right with me so far will recoil from what I am about to write as having already lambasted love, I'm about to slap religion around a bit as well.  Before I do so, I want to again state, this not intended as an offence or attack on anyone or organization.  There are wonders, and horrors to be found in everything.  If for whatever reason you find these ideas over the line, stop reading, label me crazy, and go on with your life.  I won't be offended, or hurt, and neither will you.

    At their core all our religious, and societal structures have through out history strove to do one thing. Unite and focus the energy of a group of people, that are by nature individualistic and resistant to homogenization.  Think of the idea of trying to herd cats, or how wilful toddlers can be, and you have the concept I'm going for.  To accomplish this, they use the idea of dedication to something larger than self.  Secular or Faith based does not matter the outcome is a ideology, with all the trappings positive and negative. So we can have secular saints, zealots of atheism, and holy wars. These are all done the same way, a process almost of deification that is seemingly well understood, and has been for countless ages.  If you haven't figured it out already, I'm talking about how worship

works, how we interact with divinity.  In crafting our ceremonies, rituals, rallies, what have you, there is purpose. The purpose is always the same, to guide the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, to an end.  No matter the end, for good or ill, the dynamics involved are the same, predictable, and exploitable.  Just take a look at the people who have changed the world, they understood theater very well.  Even a historic figure as reviled as  Hitler is known to have trained in oratory skills, his rallies finely tuned works of theater to weave an emotional trance state in the attendees.  A group hypnosis, where the voice of the rational mind is drowned out by the emotional attachments being manipulated.
I know we all like to think we are strong willed individuals that would never get swept up by the sentiments of the crowd.  The truth is the desire to give up our self into the care of something larger than yourself is seemingly fundamental to our make up.  We want to believe, and often so badly we fool ourselves, or make excuses.  Even religion, it has nothing to do with God, it is the exploitation of our own fear of mortality.  If there is a religion that is actually focused on God, and not on man I have yet to become aware of it.  Being human centric they concern themselves with how divinity can assist humans, or what the plan of divinity is for humanity.  They exploit some fairly basic psychological truths, not a one of us can ever live up to our own vision of perfection. So we will always see ourselves as horribly flawed, even when our external response is to project perfection. That the unknown is both exciting and terrifying, something we always want to glimpse, but not get any on us.  The trifecta for religion is an comforting partial truth or outright lie on the fate of those we have lost.  You ever stop to wonder how odd it is to have an intermediary to the ineffable, the unknowable.


in closing there is love enough for everyone, more than we can bear, and if the sun ever stops shining it's love upon us, by the time we realize it, we will already be dead.

as always make up your mind.
Jack
aka
PanseyBard 

   

Beware the Bail In

                 Back to the Spawning Grounds

Going to attempt to keep this brief, much of this I have covered before, though not from this particular angle.  Quickly to give a basic overview of why bail in's are certain to lie ahead, and will be coming to a bank near you.  Our monetary, or currency system can be likened to a pyramid structure.  Though an easier representation is monopoly, unrestrained capitalism is like a monopoly game.  Someone eventually wins, they take control, and ownership of so much, that the game freezes, no money is able to move around.  As anyone who has played monopoly knows, when this happens the game is over, someone won, and everyone else lost.  The pieces go back in the box, and everyone including the winner has to find something else to do.  In america this was well known, and up till recent time regulations were in place to make sure no one could win the game.  You could get ahead of the other players, but a cap was put on how far ahead an individual or group was allowed to get. This was not done to punish the rich, it's to ensure the system continues to function as a whole.  It ensured that if a person reached the top they either stop playing, and just maintain, or fall back into the herd, or they work to close the gap between the bottom and the top. Even if it is purely selfish motivation of coveting personal wealth.

                       The Injection Deception

Make no mistake, taxes are wealth redistribution.  Yes we pay taxes ostensibly to pay for public services, and public works projects.  You've likely heard the phrase "time is money", if we use that as a lens to understand taxes, why the highest tax brackets were hit with the highest percentage of tax burden for so long.   Most people have a job, they trade time directly for money, this is the idea of wages.  When you are in a job earning wages, the taxes you pay, can be seen as giving a portion of your time to the state every year.  So in simple terms if you pay 10% of your wages for a year, you spent 10% of your time laboring for government.  Almost like the idea of 36 days, and work for the government for nothing.  So far so good, we all like having nice public services. Like good schools, parks, water, roads, all the obvious things we all use and share.  The issues with this begin to show when a person stops trading time for money, and instead trades someone elses time for money.  This is the idea of income,  it does not have to be exploitive, though when the difference is between wages, and income are forgotten it certainly will be. When you pay rent, or a mortgage any kind of loan, and you are paying it with wages, you can consider the time spent to earn that money as spent working for that person.  As is more then likely apparent to most, you can not physically be in more than one place at the same time, your limited to working one job at a time.  This is not the case for income, in income you can be working all over, all the time, no matter what you are physically doing.

       What does this have to do with you, bail in's, and how close they might be?

Stay with me just a bit longer and it will be clear. If capitalism is like a giant monopoly game, and all monopoly games end the same way, than the governments job in managing a capitalist economy is to make sure no one actually wins.  That is the only way the economy can keep going, if to much money is allowed to be owned by any one player the economy stops.  That is where the taxes come into play, before the reforms in the 80's there was a 75% tax bracket.  This meant that if someone started making so much money that it would hurt the economy, the government would step in and take most of it, and redistribute it  back in the game.  This type of taxation, where the highest earners pay the highest %, is part of the balance to keep the game from ending.  In this set up, the government uses the taxes to provide basic services for everyone, and when it is needed. The government stimulates the economy, by taking money from the rich, and giving it to the poor.  Not in handouts, and welfare, but in public works projects.  It puts them to work, with the rich peoples money, to make new things for everyone to use.  Once the % of earnings paid in taxes inverted with the top earners paying a smaller % than the middle, and low earners. You start cutting off the flow of money to the poorest, and most vulnerable first, though all are eventually affected.  The government ends up taking from the bottom, and middle, and directly handing it to the top.  We saw this in the 2008 event, what followed is exactly what honest economic models predict.  The interest rates, and what normally thought of as safe haven or hedge assets are kept artificially low.  Money printing starts, and stays going non stop, money pours into speculative markets, instead of working it's way through the economy.  This is what measured in currency velocity, it measures how fast money moves through the economy. Along with this comes the high numbers of unemployed, or underemployed.  Though this has been hidden in changing how unemployment is calculated, all you need to do is watch labor participation rates, as more and more are forced out of the system entirely.  As this continues, those that understand how the system works begin to see they are going to lose everything when the system crashes.  They can pull out, or give away most of their money, or lose all of it.  Many of the top earners are doing just that, pulling out, or suggesting the billionaires give away half their money.  George Soros are among the pull out crowd, with Buffet, and Gates in the give away camp.  Both of these are selfishly motivated, do not kid yourself into thinking a multi billionaire giving away large sums of money is kindness.  When Buffet says it's a problem he pays a lower tax % than his secretary it's because he is being altruistic. He understands that if that continues eventually he won't have a secretary at all.  These are the QE money injections, they only kick the can down the road a little bit, till you create so much debt that everyone starts to panic, before that is allowed to happen, they will take currency out of the system.  This is the bail in, it's purpose is to keep a lid on the panic of hyper inflation, I can't say when, only that it will happen, the law to allow it was in the last budget.  

LSD a Lost Soul's Dream

                     Disclaimer

I have not had any contact with LSD for about 20 years. So no I do not know where to get any, and thank you, but I have no wish to purchase any.  This is not intended as an endorsement or condemnation of any substance or practice that seeks to alter consciousness.  The very fact differentiated states of consciousness exist, and within this experience we can access them means they will be accessed.  There are myriad methods of altering consciousness, the truth of which is simple.  What is changed is not consciousness, only our individual experience of it.  Our experience, what we have termed consciousness, mind, emotion, spirit, physicality can be looked at as structured, and structuring of data.  Not unlike how a computer functions, with a series of on/off switches linked structures directing electrical flow into set patterns which can be assigned definitions, and repeated, to create desired effects.  This really is not surprising when you understand everything external is a representation of something internal.  We do not so much create, as imitate and adapt, if you feel something is original or out of left field, it is only that you have yet to experience what is being externalized.  From another perspective, we can only create that which the rules of the universe flower of life, or tree of life.  These are overlapping, and interlocking creating what has been termed the holofractal. Like in music where the space between the notes are of equal import to the notes played.  Our experience we call reality is based as much on what is not seen, heard or felt, as what is seen, heard, and felt.  Where ever you are at the moment, what ever your doing, roughly 95% of what is taking place, you are unaware of.  In other words, what you are experiencing right now, is based on only 5% of the information around you.  Not that you are limited to a particular portion of the information. Often it is a matter of our own focus that becomes the limiting factor, another is not having a method of interpretation.  Basicly we need the framework for the experience to fit in, before we are able to make sense of the experience.  We have an idea of singularity, stemming from our own sense of self, which we project onto creation, and are rewarded with confirming feedback.  This is the very idea of god, the universe, creation whatever you want to call it, coming to you as you are able to currently accept it.  What we normally consider a singular I, is at minimum 3 repeated I's interwoven, this is reflected to us everywhere. From as abstract as no thing can be said to be, or event have happened till it confirmed by 2 independent sources. Right on through to body/mind/spirit, and a table or chair needing at least 3 legs to stand on it's own. Or even in the song lyrics from P.M. Dawn, "we always are, because we never were".  Each breath, each step, every thought, everything we ingest, all of it, alters how we perceive the experience we call life. The difference being the nature of that change, and how closely that change is relatable to your current experience. With what we call psychoactive compounds we have a chemical code used to create predictable physiological changes, that can change what information we process, and or how we process it.   From here it is not difficult to understand, why and how, already brilliant people that partake of these compounds, it often leads to new insights.  The insights were always there, the person just needed the eyes to see them.  Also why some do not find their way back, or when they do are fundamentally altered.

allow.  If we could it would not be a rule, it would be a guideline.  Most of our confusion in the nature of mind, and consciousness stem from our world view called materialism.  The conception that all things rise from matter, that our consciousness is created by the body.  There is much to be learned from this model, however it is not reflected in as absolute in our experience.  Even in our ideas of how the universe sprang into being from the big bang, start not with the heaviest elements, and particles, but with the lightest,  This experience is not predicated on the singular, but on an interplay between interconnected repeated patterns. These can be thought of as spheres of influence, represented in scared teachings such as the

              My Time in the Cloud

In the 90's there was a resurgence in LSD, it was suddenly everywhere, and I was well placed to participate.  The time, access and inclination combined perfectly to have me experimenting for a couple of years, often dosing a couple of times a week.  After my initial introduction, it was quickly apparent, this was not a party time drug, but a tool for the exploration of self.  That was precisely how I approached it, not from a scientific method, but a personal tool to understand who, and what I am, and how I relate to everything normally viewed as not me.  When ingesting LSD my intention was in general to move as far away from what I normally viewed as me.  This usually involved ingesting a

10 strip, and sequestering myself to my room, and meditating for hours on end.  There became a point where my intention was to get to a point where verbal communication was no longer viable due to the individualized definitions we each have for every word we know.   This I came to understand is related to the idea, you can not listen while your speaking, or listening being an active thing, not passive.  Once my projections slowed, and stopped, impressions normally washed out by my own noise became clear. When the return to my normal conscious state would come into sight, a furious rush of activity would ensue. Attempting to ground the realization into my physical experience, and often followed by synchronistic events to flesh out, or serve as confirmation.  Not that what is experienced is always accurate, this owning in large part to the ability of person to comprehend, and relate the experience.  As well as what is being experienced is not about truth, or fact, but the experience itself.  My active use time with LSD eventually ended, with a clear concise message, stating unequivocally if I continued it would become a detriment, and not a benefit.  Basicly I had blown the crap out of my mind, to where it would begin to shatter, not stretch.  So what did I learn from my time with LSD?  Nothing at all.  What I experienced though changed me in ways I am still working on understanding.  I'll share 2 very different journey's, what you make of them is up to you, each are and were valid and true for me in their own way.  In no way should anything I've said so far, or am going to say, is intended for any validation, or rejection from the reader.  The act of sharing itself is the motivation. My current understanding tells me, my unique perspective on what I have experienced is all I have to offer, and what makes me, uniquely me.

                   People Powers

I am a people person, thats not to say I like everyone, or even desire to interact with people all the time.  Point of fact I am quite selective on those I call friend. This is of course only a reflection on me, and not an accurate reflection of those I know, or am aware of, but do not count as friend.  When I call myself a people person, it's that the relationships we develop, or dismantle are what has meaning here.  More so than anything else that is what lasts, even in our looking back in history it's through a lens of how it relates to us.  My fascination with people, as well as a certain detached perspective far precede my LSD adventure.  Back into early childhood, of being an only child raised by a single mother, plenty of time to be with myself, and live with my own choices.  Little wonder

that when a personal introduction to universal teaching happened, it was couched in terms of people.

      During one of my early 10 strip meditation sessions, a number theory was laid out for me, I claim no origination of it, not even an original take on it. Only that it was new to me.  As I would come to learn after, what I was describing has been around forever, and called many things. For me it came as what made solid circles of people. The idea is quite simple, you are a set, when you interact with another set, the 2 of you create a new super-set, that encompasses both of you.  This idea of creating a new set that is an amalgamation of the subset is repeated through the primary numbers.  The theory laid out which of these groupings would self regulate, and which would require constant attention, or risk collapse.  As it went through, the numbers, laid out was how to pattern group dynamics to be self regulating, with this being scaleable.

1 is complete and whole unto itself, it needs nothing else to be complete.  This is the idea of a person becoming self contained, as long as they remain isolated they are a stable unit.

2 the idea of a couple, this can be, but is not on it's own a stable unit. Each involved must make a concerted effort to maintain the super-set, or it will either, break into 2 sets of 1, or it will attract a 3rd.  This is that idea of intense bursts of intimacy, That either blossom into a more complex expression, or finds it's completion and satiation before withdrawing into comfortable boundaries.

3 This is where first station of stability, groups of 3 are self stabilizing, where the desires and motivations of the individuals are balanced not on the shoulders of one, but all there.  This is not to say all interactions between 3 people are balanced, only that they are self balancing. with the balance point of each trine being a representation of the combined energies of each participant.  I can almost feel the "victims" of the broken atomic families, mother, father, child scream in horror.  The negatively viewed experiences most have from break downs in nuclear family structures happen before the child is brought into the picture usually.  Most these come from the lies we tell each other in those intense bursts of intimacy.  I know, I know, the idea that men and women both lie about what they really want out of those intense bursts is absurd.

     For the purposes of this article I don't feel a need to go through all the numbers, much the same information I would impart can be found all over, and not my purpose in the writing this.  A few days after this I was down at the local metaphysical shop, it was Bethel, CT in the 90's even that there was a high profile shop of this type was new.  In talking with the owner, she was amazing as I attempted to impart this theory, listening like it was of actual interest, not the ravings of drugged. When I finished she asked me if I had heard of the  kabbalah as what I had described to her were the basis of it's teachings.  That was my first interaction with the word, of the system it represents. now that would be a neat trick. Just as an interesting anecdote or at least interesting to me. I was introduced to the teachings of the Kabbalah in town, who's name is hebrew for house of God.

         Under the Sea

Growing up in the US, an exposure to the idea of armageddon or the end of earth are pretty tough to avoid.  I can remember having dreams of it, going back to before I am able to pinpoint.  This pervasive theme was brought into a fullness of being so painful, it wrecked me, shredded boundaries of emotional separation I was not even aware existed, and to a certain extent I had to spend years reconstructing to be able to deal with being in large public areas with lots of people around without being energetically overwhelmed,  becoming strung out off the combined emotional output of the crowd. As you might have guessed this was a stark contrast to the above experience, yet it also involved the focus on people, a 10 strip, and prolonged meditation.  Though I had like most had heard of ideas of mass consciousness, it was always something remote, not something a person interacted with directly.  At some point that conception morphed, into the idea, that if the concept of a collective consciousness was truth, than being a portion of it, I could essentially go back through the downstream of it, and experience it directly.  In doing so I found myself confronted by what I can only describe as a guardian.  Not a guardian to barr my path, one to warn me, that where I was headed was a danger to the ego attempting to experience it. .  Having no frame of reference for this warning it went unheeded, and off I went into the storm.  Finding myself in what seemed to be the mother of cyclonic storm systems, organized chaos, raw, rough, with seemingly no awareness of it's own actions, or their effects.  This was in large part due to my clinging to a spot, by standing in opposition to the flow of mass consciousness, it was left with no choice but remove the obstruction.
. The ego fog ripped away, the main Island of Japan was far below me, every person felt as if it was me.  Like I was experiencing Japan from the perspective of it's group consciousness.  Only it was in process of being reclaimed by the sea, The water rushing in so quickly with so little warning no one had anywhere to flee to.  This was felt as unadulterated terror, rage, fear, millions upon millions of people dying in pain, and fear in a matter of moments.  I remember very clearly that it was not their death that was so painful for me, that was a normal expected outcome of life. The pain I felt was the dying in a state of fear, in the belief they were alone.  It was the nature of the death that was the pain, and there were bastions of calm, people who had no fear, and were at peace with this event, but in the main people believed themselves to be isolated in life, and felt themselves slide into a cold isolation of darkness in death. Not that it was accurate, as no one is ever alone, small balm to one in the experience of it. 

Again do not take this as a recommendation, endorsement. I would not change my time with LSD, there also would be a cautionary tale for anyone wishing to embark on their own exploration.

Be Careful what you wish for, the universe is a giant yes machine

as always make up your own mind

Jack

aka

PanseyBard

Your Children, Your Choice

               Peter the Pirate

Many of you would most likely see me as suffering from a peter pan complex, and that might be one of the kinder labels tossed in my direction.  While I do not argue the label, there is the inclination to challenge the validity of the mainstream concept of an adult.  Most in making the judgement are not questioning my intelligence, maturity, or understanding.  Often it's quite the opposite, with my analysis, and understanding being valued, and sought.  The seeming disconnect happens from my perspective in large part due to how people define an adult.  So what makes a well adjusted adult human?  Is it being able to conform and fit in, becoming a "successful contributing member of society"?  To a degree this would seem an obvious answer, how could one argue with being a success?  What happens when a culture is sick, is it still the rational choice to become what that culture covets?  This is of course the idea, that being considered sane in an insane society is not a measure of psychological health.  Take a little stroll with me, and maybe, just maybe, you'll find a little bit of the Pan you once were.

                Institutionalized

In the west we are so proud of our institutions, be they educational, financial, religious, the list goes on and on.  We leave off the flip side, prisons, mental hospitals, we do this because in general people have been taught to see the world in terms of polarity.  This of course ignores the fact, these are opposames masquerading as opposites, with the outcome of being institutionalized.

  : to cause (a custom, practice, law, etc.) to become accepted and used by many people : to establish (something) as an institution

: to put (someone, such as a mentally ill person) in an institution

These are connotations of pavlovian conditioning, not education, or child development. Taken to it's extreme the goal of an institution is to become indispensable, and condition those in it to become unable to function without it.  There is ample evidence this has been intentional, of course labeled as conspiracy theory.  Frankly that it has gotten that most dismissive of labels only warrants closer inspection.  Take moment, and look for yourself, Dodd Report, deliberate dumbing down,

or even though I'm leary of Alex Jones. Our much vaunted education system was hijacked long ago to keep a fresh supply of human capital ready for exploitation by the corporate institutions.  We want to believe so badly in basic beneficence of our culture, that we ignore some basic facts.  Entrenched systems of power seek to protect their position. Our leaders are selected from, and by these same institutions.  People say they wish only happiness for their children, or they wish for their child to be the best them they can be. Than they package them off to be institutionalized so they can find their place in society.

              Taking Candy from the Mouths of Babies Mama's

Marketing and Consumerism go hand in glove, like peanut butter, and jelly, and damn have we gotten good at it.  I have no doubt even Edward Bernays would be amazed by the level of sophistication our propaganda has risen to.  I call it propaganda because that is exactly what it is, structuring information to create a desired outcome.  In this case parting someone from some currency in exchange for a product, or service.  As corrupt and shortsighted as this economic model might be on the whole. When directed at children, it might just be a crime against humanity.  An extreme statement to be sure, but one that is not very difficult to back up.  Critical reasoning skills are needed in order to counter the automatic psychological processes exploited by advertisers.  Child development, and psychology experts are employed by organizations who have as their motivation profit. These folks use all their skill and understanding, not to enrich the life of your child.  Nah it's used to know how to make advertising that gets your child to ask for the product in as few as views as possible.  So what you say, my 5 year old does not make the buying decisions in my household.  Only our experts on conditioning have that all worked out as well.  We all have a surrender point, where we will agree to almost anything if only to make something stop.  If you think this is something exploited only in interrogation, just think back to how many times you have caved to repeated pestering by your child.  This is so well understood, even the big media creation outlets, such as disney, or nickelodeon have a nice predictable path set out for your childs idols.  Introducing the faces they will grow up watching, engendering a sense of connection and trust.  Using techniques as having the stars be just older than the audience, exploiting that natural tendency of looking up to those ahead of you.  Transitioning actors with a generation, so as a group ages there is a continuity, and trust is deepened. This is even taken to the point of switching from childrens tv shows to music seemingly just as your teen has seeming grown headphones.  In this obvious industrialized exploitation, and abuse of our young, it's unclear to me what is more disturbing.  That it's happening at all, or that those who are supposed experts on child development, and psychology have raised no moral objections.    

    Judged by Our Hero's

There is a metric often used to understand the health of a culture, as well as where in the development cycle a civilization is.  Who, and what are held in esteem shift as a civilization goes through it's life cycle. When a culture goes into decline, false or trivial accomplishment are celebrated beyond reason.

Activities that while they may have value, like sports, music, acting, cooking. Become blown to a status usually reserved for royalty.  People that once would have considered a liability regardless of a skill or talent become held as idols.  Style trumps substance, as leaders, and people stop asking is it right, in favor of is it legal, or can I get away with it.  You'd like to imagine we are unique, the greatest nation, of the greatest people to ever grace the earth.  While we do have unique traits, these stages of empire have happened for as long as there have been empires.  The United States of today have far more than the eagle in common with the Roman empire.  Ask yourself how many household names do we have today, that are just famous.  They are not famous for doing anything, they are just famous for being rich, or outrageous.  So while some jump on folks like Charles Barkley for saying he is not a role model, I applaud.  Mr Barkley may be many things, even may be a good role model, but if he is, it has nothing to do with how well he did on the basketball court.

As always make up your own mind

Jack

aka

PanseyBard

Did Christianity Foster the Jewish Banker Stereotype?

               It's all in The Numbers

The Jewish Banker stereotype myth, and the perceived link between money lenders and changers and Judaism is as pervasive as it is seemingly unquestioned.  Of course being religiously linked, you do not have look beyond religious traditions, and dogma to notice where and why.  For right or wrong, and with great misunderstanding of traditions, the very foundations of Christianity paint the Jewish faith as having been corrupted by the money lenders.  Jesus as acknowledged by many works was a rebel, a reformer, or a conservative.  He was devout in his faith, and from his perspective felt the Temple had strayed from the true teachings, and his mission was to restore it.  This is poignantly shown in the money lenders in the Temple story.  In order to paint the picture we need to understand this is not a secular community.  Faith does not just guide what most modern western culture would label as "spiritual" aspects of life.  This is a state based on a Faith, which of course means, the faith governs all aspects, from the most mundane to the most exalted.  That is where the Shemitah needs to be understood.  This essentially governs economic, and production, but it also covers debt remittance between the people.  This idea of economic reset, would have been quite important to member of the house David.  Recorded are many ways in antiquity and modern times of man using clever wording to work around the Shemitah. An example of this would be the creation of a trust to transfer ownership of land to a non-jew for the year, so it can continue to be worked.  Also the use hydroponic greenhouses as they are not in the soil.  The cycles outlined, are in no way random, they show an understanding of compounding interest most lack today.

               Usury The Golden Ticket

 In the pre christian cradle of modern western civilization had it's own ideas on interest. Ranging from an outright condemnation as being against nature by Plato, and Aristotle. To the Greek and Roman laws regulating interest rates on loans.  The early Christian church in the 3rd and 4th centuries already banned interest on loans made by clerics, with some speculation it was already condemned if not banned for laypersons.  By the 11th and 12th centuries charging interest at all was considered a sin.  For those of Jewish faith the church had made different rules, which even by the 1100's allowed for reasonable interest to be charged.  A ban does not eliminate the desire, or need, we have been shown this in modern times with prohibition.  For Jews in the Christian controlled west, The position of money lender, or changer become inadvertently one they could uniquely fill.  This was at a time when Jews in the west were subject to much discrimination, and barred from practicing many professions.  Not until the 1800's does the Holy See acknowledge it as legitimate to charge interest on loans, as well as exact penalties for the failure to live up to the obligations of a loan. As I have discussed often one of the prime motivations for the American Revolution as stated by Franklin was interest on currency creation being charged by the Bank of England.  So for hundreds of years those of Jewish faith were not just allowed, but encouraged to take up a profession regarded as a sin. By the middle 1500's the portrayal of the greedy Jew demanding unreasonable terms is clearly in evidence in works such as The Merchant of Venice.  What had been set up was an exclusive right to the financial services sector of much of early Christian europe. While it being transactions between Jew and Gentile exempted it from the restrictions that apply to transactions between Jew's.

               Distorted into the Modern ERA

Most of this historical basis is before the advent of modern systemically problematic practices such as fiat currency, and fractional reserve banking.  That the modern opposition to world financial structures condem.  Could it be this distortion of history is in part to blame for one of the modern worlds worst crimes against humanity?  If I am honest, these is great discomfort in presenting these links of history, but feel it would be remiss to not at least raise the question.  When WWII is discussed and the how the nazi's came to power the changes in economic policy are largely glossed over or ignored completely. Being rightly overshadowed by horror felt at the depth of the atrocities committed.  Others have done much research into how Hitler came to power, and turned the german economy around through privatization, and banking reform along with clever financing.  This brilliance though belonged not to Hitler, but to Hjalmar Schacht who was forced out of the government before the war began due to opposition to rearmament. Jewish influences were used as a scapegoat for the surrender in WWI.  For a disillusioned profoundly disturbed Hitler returning from the front this was just the outlet needed to serve as a focus.  As we still struggle with ideas of stereotyping in the modern world, it might be worth while to be aware a label sticks long after it's reason for being is forgotten.

As always make up your own mind

Jack

aka

PanseyBard

Tomorrow Tech, Yesterday Drives

       Just Entertainment?

We see many articles proclaiming the dangers of mass media, and I am not here to debate the dubious morals, of propaganda, and advertising.  From Control of information, to marketing to children, the list of possible abuses is undeniable.  Weather it's shaping discourse or public opinion, or revisiting some past triumph or tragedy.  Our modern media will churn out any perspective desired, often with contradictory messages.  When we take into account, the trouble we as humans have in determining reality from fantasy.   In modern times the very notion of what entertainment is, and it's purpose has been lost on the majority.  For most it has become a leisure activity, predicated on the cessation of critical reasoning.  A look at the origins of the idea of entertainment reveal it to be a horse of a different color.

entertain (v.) 

late 15c., "to keep up, maintain, to keep (someone) in a certain frame of mind," from Middle French entretenir, from Old French entretenir "hold together, stick together, support" (12c.), from entre- "among" (from Latin inter; see inter-) + tenir "to hold" (from Latin tenere; see tenet).

Sense of "have a guest" is late 15c.; that of "gratify, amuse" is 1620s. Meaning "to allow (something) to consideration, take into the mind" (of opinions, notions, etc.) is 1610s. Related: Entertained; entertaining.

     What Motivates

None can argue our technological advancement is, and has been expanding at rates we can scarcely keep up with.  Much of this acceleration is easy to understand when you grasp the implications of moore's law in the growth of processing power.  A simplified understanding is to think of all the processing power in the world, and think that it has been, and will continue to double roughly every year. The amazing pace of this advancement is often depicted in our media, hints at what lie just around the corner. Sometimes predicting tech that will not be seen for decades, or longer.  With a look at the possible social, and psychological issues related to the projected advancement taking a central role in the unfolding of the story.  Often having such a forward projected view on technological breakthroughs, does not seem to translate to the motivations of characters.  With all this future tech, and depictions of future abundance, the characters quite often would fit in nicely in a greek comedic tragedy. With even some supposedly brilliant people behaving in manors unbecoming in children, let alone in what are supposed to be intelligent adults.  This seemingly complete lack of anything other than academic or technological intelligence. With this in mind I find myself asking the question, is this a reflection, projection, or some mixture.  Are people so emotionally driven that it washes away any semblance of rational behavior?  Emotions are wonderful, but just as logic devoid of emotion comes to differing conclusions, so too do emotions devoid logic.  Six thousand plus years of history according to established thinking, and we still kill over ideas of god, boarders, and pieces of paper. 

Selection vrs Election

       The Democracy Hype

Much has been made of the potential spread of democracy around the world.  The words Pax Americana, can be heard, and might not be far off.  Democracy has become a catch all media buzz word, generally used to justify some manor of intervention. Which likely looks anything but democratic in nature.  As an American I can not deny the obviously selective nature of our desire for other nations to experience the blessings of democratic rule. The examples of support for "friendly" dictatorships by the United States would be laughable if it weren't so hypocritical.  While media outlets tout the overthrow of one regime as a victory for the people, and blow for democracy. Movements in nations with western friendly dictatorships are in large part ignored, and often these governments are receiving aid, or military backing from the US.  Leaving it painfully obvious, that as a nation we are far more concerned with our perceived national self interest than any notions of self determination, or democracy.  In the US we pride ourself on our right to vote, yet how many feel represented? How many even know how our electoral system works?  Democracy is great, one of the most amazing innovations, but like so many things context plays it's role.

     The Choice We Can't See

To serve as an elected public official can be viewed in many ways, an honor, an act of duty, maybe even a burden. The one thing for the public well-being it would best left not thought of is as a career. By the time a candidate is offered for your consideration, they have already been approved by their party, and in the days of money equals speech, the contributors.  It's not really a surprise than to see that often organizations fund both parties equally.  Call it strategic planning, or corporate governance, the effect is undue influence to put it nicely.  If you did notice, there were many on that list that did not fund both sides, which is just as telling.  When you have only two main political parties as entrenched as and pervasive as in the US, they can not be opposites, they can only be opposames. The parties never leave power, they share power, just changing the distribution. We find ourselves in a the role of child being offered choice as a balm for all the no's in our daily existence.

    Factions

 In an absolute government there can be no... equiponderant parties. The despot is the government. His power suppressing all opposition, maintains his ministers firm in their places. What he has contracted, therefore, through them, he has the power to observe with good faith; and he identifies his own honor and faith with that of his nation." --Thomas Jefferson to John Langdon, 1810. ME 12:377

"Warring against [the principles] of the people,... there is no length to which [the delusion of the people] may not be pushed by a party in possession of the revenues and the legal authorities of the United States, for a short time indeed, but yet long enough to admit much particular mischief. There is no event, therefore, however atrocious which may not be expected." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Smith, 1798. (*) ME 10:56   

Now revisit the idea that our parties never leave power, are backed pretty equally by most major corporate entities, in a nation who's currency is owned/controlled by a what amounts to a private bank.  Our two party system with elections, is seeming to offer less and less of real choice.


As always, make up your own mind
Jack
aka
PansyBard

B Movie Plot? or Hidden History?

          That is Just Ridiculous!

     From nazi's on the moon, zombie nazi's, alien nazi's, one might argue nazi's are more popular now than ever. Who can argue, they do make a bad guy not many would be willing to defend.  In the world of political correctness casting hero's and villains can be a minefield.  Enter the nazi's, a group so heinous, and dripping with the style of threat, and menace, and little to no current public representation.  For most the nazi threat disappeared with the conclusion of WWII, or shortly after, the known truth is much more complicated, and uncomfortable.  One that may not yet have been fully written, let alone fully told.  So what might my personal nazi b movie plot look like?

          Jumping the Shark

     Since I'm going for camp, I figure why hold back, something along the lines of  "Rise of the Alien Nazi's", or "White House Nazi", maybe even "Nazi, Slavers, from Outer Space".  The plethora of conspiracy theories combined with the sad twisted history, are so ripe with possibility.  Why not go for the grand overarching take over the world. It can't be true anyway, right?  Not so fast, some of the most outlandish do have at least partial basis in fact.  While it is true there was a public push, and show trial hanging some high ranking nazi's,  many more nazi's simplely reinvented themselves, with the help of various intelligence agencies.  The US had operation paperclip, operation alsos, and project ticom to grab as many nazi assets as possible. ostensibly to  keep them from the soviets. What of the people that were nazi supporters, or sympathizers that were in the US.  As laid out in much research american supporters of fascism, or Fascism Support Hitler US.  Backed up by a historically forgotten coup attempt, involving names almost everyone would recognize today.  Sprinkle with a dash of Tall White's control America, and we really got a fun story of historical intrigue.

        Tall Tale

     How might a rough outline of this fantastical alternate history farce look?  Well how about we take a look.  Likely we'd flash through some real history leading up to and through the war, slowing briefly to highlight some prominent figures.  Leading to a slow revelation of the alien backing of the nazi's, leading the US not to recruit the nazi's to counter the soviets, but initially to oppose the aliens. Cut to the Byrd mission operation highjump played out as a loss, and agreement to work with the Tall Whites.  This new shadow organization initially made up of portions of the intelligence community, and the military industrial complex, guided by the Tall Whites.  This group has no moral guiding compass easily shown through US foreign assassinations, 1960s era of assassination, or CIA drug involvement.  Of course we have to highlight some of our key players, tying our supposed villains to the cause.  A few well placed dramatically sinister scenes with loads of creative license, linking the Bush family as central players, in not just JFK, but all of the 60's removal of opposition, and various nefarious doings.  Being certain to add in social engineering, hippy movement, and ultimate takeover of media ala operation mockingbird. As if this were not enough, we'd also need to breeze through the economic changes.  So now that America has been taken over by alien nazi's, who is our hero?  Well why not just go all the way with our farce, and make The Bush family also be the hero's, protecting the human race from outright enslavement, or elimination at the hands of the Tall Whites.  Perhaps we make a story where the truth is so bad, that even an ugly lie is preferred.

as ever, make up your own damn mind
Jack
aka
PanseyBard

Transhumanist Goal in Sight

          So You Want to Live Forever?  

           Some may be aware of Transhumanism, many are likely not.  To me it's just a nice advertising friendly name, to what may be the most important event in human biological development.  To put it as simply as I can, Transhumanism refers to humanities move toward machine.  The event is oft called the Singularity, the moment when the line between man, and machine disappears.   Sounds like a sci-fi story, I know.   Some very prominent folks are not just expecting it, they are helping to ensure it's arrival.  Chief among them in the US would have to be Ray Kurzweil, though he is by no means alone as a google search shows, the 2045 initiative has it's path all mapped out.  The goal of course being technological immortality.  This opens up so many questions, moral, religious, philosophic.  A wonderland of one of my favorite questions "what if".

         What If's

           Much thought has been directed toward conceptions of immortality.  I had thought the question of immortality had been resolved with Einstein, or at least moved into the realm of not if, but the nature of.  A question of ego, what of me, as I currently conceive of myself continues.  Just to get this obvious one out of the way.  It is unlikely these will be available for everyone, so there is a high potential for a split, a break away civilization, or a revolution of sorts.  The masses likely lose that one, as there is little need for restraint, given the move toward automation.  This could ultimately be the end of humanity as we think of it.  That of course is an extreme version, with a toned down cyberpunk flowering out of imagination into the world.  Where there is a vast range of quality of artificial replacement components, along with a range of skill in application.  Though interesting, there are far more complex implications.  In all of our world religions even agnostic, there is an acknowledgement of an authority.  In many there is an idea of a covenant, or contract.  In many of the stories when judgement comes, it is often due to man stepping outside the bounds of this covenant. Given the context of some of these transgressions, like interbreeding, building a tower to god.  These attracted a direct intervention.  Is it to far out to consider, physical immortality might be reacted to in a similar fashion.  Mortality is fundamental to our conception of what is to be human. Can a being that is essentially immortal even be considered human?   This does not even consider the possible personal empires that could be sustained.  

      It's personal

      Ultimately this is another of those not if, but when events. With each of us having to make personal choices.  Just what it means to be alive, and what immortality really represents.  Will we lose what makes life worth living in our rush to make it eternal?  One thing is certain, it's going to be entertaining to watch it unfold.

Jack

aka

PanseyBard   

Is it Money?

This is a United States one dollar bill, it has been, and is many things.  If you have lived on planet Earth over the last couple of hundred years, than this piece of paper has affected your life.
If you have grown up in the United State, you have been told a story of how breaking the grip of monarchy has made you free.  Omitted from this narrative has been the story of the dollar, and how the war for it's control, has created invisible shackles of economic entrapment.  While it is beyond the scope to offer a complete historical account in a blog post.  I will instead hit some high points, and show how our collective misunderstanding of money, currency, and economics has left our continued freedom in doubt.

No More Kings:

    Yes the revolution was fought for the right to self determination. In other words to wrest control of the fledgling colonies from english rule.  This in part involved the physical arm of rule, the King, military of Britain.  Another aspect was the power to create currency, not create money, as I will show later these are not always the same.  The colonies had been using a self created currency to allow for trade amongst themselves, called colonial script, much like the paper money we use today. This had the effect of a healthy growing local economy, it also had the effect of cutting the Bank of England out.  By this time control of the bank of england was not in the hands of the crown, but had already transferred to private hands.  As evidenced by numerous passages from the time, they were well aware that this amounted to a hidden tax on all trade.  A hidden mechanism that ensured the transfer of wealth from the colonies to Bank of England.  As well as ensuring a method of control beyond force of arms, much like a parent might manipulate a child through monetary controls today. Well documented is the victory over the physical control.  When it comes to being governed through control of currency, we lost, so we do not hear about it.  Like any conflict, the history is written by the victors.  Once the physical conflict ended, the economic conflict kicked into high gear.  The First Central Bank of America was chartered in 1791, backed most famously by Alexander Hamilton, and opposed by Thomas Jefferson.

This Means War:

When the charter for the First Bank of America expired in 1811, and fueling the ignition of the War of 1812.  This conflict was fought all over the Globe with many varied participants, it ended in 1815. In 1816 the Second Bank of America was chartered, by James Madison with the promise of controlling inflation that had been created as a result of the the war.  Lasting until it's charter was not renewed by Andrew Jackson, who had denounced it as corrupt.  It's demise in 1836 created what has become known as the "free banking era".  During this time there were only state banks, and without a plan to replace the outgoing central banking authority.  There was nothing in place to ensure economic interests were being protected.  This period culminates in the Civil War, which while it had the effect of ending slavery, a close inspection shows it was not the cause or intent of the conflict. This conflict from a banking perspective culminates with the banking act of 1863. Which set up the national banking system, ending the free banking era.  This framework was exploited repeatedly to push forward the need for a central lender of last resort.  The final push of instability known as the panic of 1907, prompted the push for a lender of last resort.  After the failure of the Aldridge plan, The Federal Reserve Act was adopted in 1913.

The Beat Goes On:

Once The United States entered WWI, which had much of it's underpinnings found in the railway running from Iraq, to Germany, redrawing the economic power structure of europe,  The fledgling Federal Reserve became the issuer of the bonds used to finance US participation.  Post WWI, the Fed, was able to cement it's power to create and destroy the nations currency, under the leadership of Paul Warburg.  It proceeded to institute a series of policies creating booms and busts, leading to the crash of 1929.  At this point the United States is effectively bankrupt, the years following known as the Great Depression find their conclusion in 1933 and the New Deal.  This had the effect of holding all future generations responsible for the debts incurred by their parents, and grandparents. This was also when the US began to exit the gold Standard. FDR in 33, making it a crime for US citizens to own and hold gold bullion.  Once the gold had been confiscated the government price for gold was raised to $35 an ounce.  Enter WWII, which of course also, aside from having the highly emotional, and publicized drive of hate. The atmosphere which fostered these attitudes, had roots in the harsh economic penalties placed on Germany with the treaty of Versaille.  Post WWII, at the Bretton Woods conference, the dollar was established as the world reserve currency, with the Federal Reserve guiding international monetary policy in 1944.  The dollar becoming the world reserve currency had the effect of placing a hidden a tax on all trade settled, payable to the Federal Reserve.  This held relatively steady till 1971 when Nixon removed final ties to gold.  In it's place had been engineered what has been called the petrodollar.  The United States had engineered deals with the opec nations, to only accept dollars in exchange for oil.  Thus maintaining the need for all other nations to continue to use dollars to settle international trade.  This final decoupling of the dollar from gold, just solidified the identity crisis paper currency has had forever.

It Never Was Money:

Paper currency, even when backed by real money, never was, and never can be real money.  It is at best a representation of money, and that only while it is directly backed and exchangeable for real money.  Currency is money when it is made out of money, like silver, and gold coins.  In 1974 when Ford lifted the prohibition against American citizens owning, and holding gold bullion.  The minds of the people had already come to think of the paper as the thing with value.  To make things really simple, money is what people turn the currency they do not need for day to day living expenses in to. Currency on the other hand is the accounting tool. It measures how much an economic system owes you, or how much you owe it.  This basic misunderstanding has been used to ensure, the masses remain in perpetual debt, and considering this debt to be wealth.  Understand, this is not about enslavement on an individual basis, how much or little an individual participates is unimportant.  This about dependency on a macro level.  If you want to partake of the benefits of the system you automatically participate in sustaining.  There is a reason gold is considered money, even when it is obviously not currency, and the same can be said of silver, and many other tangible assets.  They hold value over time, and are exchangeable for currency everywhere.  Being key aspects of money, the dollar obviously does not fit, having lost over 90% of it's value since 1913.

Now and Forward:

What are called fiat monetary systems, with interest on currency creation have a mathematical life span.  This kind of system is in essence what is commonly referred to as a ponzi scheme.  It is also the background push behind the infinite growth idea.  The interest attached to every dollar created is a hidden tax, or wealth transfer. As long as the economy as a whole has a growth rate ahead of this interest no one is the wiser.  In 2008 this system reached a mathematical break point,  Interest rates now have to remain at near %0, along with passing around a series of currency printing. The ironic thing being with the suppressed interest rates this new currency does not enter at the bottom. Instead it directly goes into whatever will provide a return. This continues the decoupling of the top from the bottom started in the 80's, as well as lowering the currency velocity.  In the simple terms, this is the time of the monopoly game where 1 person owes everything is only a matter of dice rolls from attaining all the paper.  Alternately if interest rates are allowed to rise even above 3% the US government can no longer afford to borrow the currency it needs to function. Even at 0 interest, anyone can notice the debt has already gone parabolic, doubling in Obama's presidency this is likely to accelerate.  This broken system, will than be offered up as a failed idea, with fiat currency being shelved as evil.  Only nothing will be changed, the alternative gold backed currency will be just that. Gold backed, a representation of money, with debt still attached to it's creation.  Perhaps if done correctly what has been used to secretly enslave, can be used to ensure a move toward ultimate freedom.  

Solutions:

1: Nationalize the Federal Reserve, ownership to be a trust made up of ever citizen of the United States.  It's books to be publicly available, to ensure it's transparency. The fed would still be responsible the management of the currency. As well as the IRS, you still have to pay for services if you desire to have services. This is not as bad as it sounds in an a working system.

2: No interest on currency creation, this is so big it gets it's own.  Currency being different than money is only created by the Federal Reserve.  Money is not created, it's value being intrinsic.

3: End fractional reserve banking practices. This is actually covered in only the Fed creating currency, being in essence a mechanism for creating currency from nothing.

4:  End Corporate personhood, along with currency being considered speech.

5: End Currency speculation, currency is to facilitate, and encourage productivity, and trade.  Speculation only distorts the purchasing power.

These of course are not complete, or do I believe they are the only fixes.  These are small moves that would be steps on the way.

As always make up your own damn mind

Jack

aka

PanseyBard

I'm Ok, I'm Just Stuck in a Loop.

     This was me on a visit to Mom's in my mid 30's.  A fairly typical example of a person comfortable

with who they are.  Fast forward a little over 10 years, and I hardly recognize myself as having been that guy.  The transition from active participant in the experience of life, to a reclusive observer of life.  Was as gradual as it was inevitable, my own decisions leading inexorably to my  personal oubliette.  As is the usual circumstance, when looking back. The many opportunities to change directions are as obvious, as they are useless in my current experience.  Oft times serving as a rather depressing reminder that my current circumstance is wholly my doing.  That hard truth might just be toughest aspect to accept, and forgive.  Of course that forgiveness of self is high touted as essential in moving past perceived personal failings.  Perhaps that combined with that odd desire to pick at a healing wound is the prompting to write this. So whats put the hitch in my giddy up? In a single word, teeth.
    Just over a year ago, what remained of my rotted, broken top teeth were removed. As this pic

clearly shows, something needed to be done.  Infections in my gums were a normal occurrence.  I could count on the pain, and discomfort being bad enough to completely sideline me for days at a time.  By this point the shame had already stopped me from smiling.  I had learned to hide my top teeth from view in the course of casual interaction.  Most people were only to happy to play along and pretend they didn't notice, with only children being honest to ask questions that made everyone uncomfortable.  So by the time of this pic, my choices were already pretty limited.  Keep the teeth, and be sick, and possibly kill myself through inaction.  Or lose the teeth, and get physically healthy. At this point, I'd have to reserve judgement on the benefit, or detriment of my choice.
    When so many are so happy to get dentures, or implants, some of you might be saying something to effect of "suck it up girly pants", or perhaps "get over it already".  In honesty, there may be some validity to that type of perspective. This is such an obvious get over yourself kind of thing, that even being in it. I am unable to discount the sentiment.  It is this sentiment bumping up against ideas of quality of life being of more import, than just being alive.  When I ask myself having experienced using a top plate denture, is the quality of life granted by this prosthetic enough.  In all honesty no, not for me.  At 46 having experienced 7 or so months of life with dentures.  I found I could not project a future with dentures I had any desire to experience.  So looking at alternatives, there is of course implants.  I'd guess in large part these would be a workable patch, once a couple of hurdles were overcome. Namely they are prohibitively expensive, and far outside my current circumstance. Getting my teeth extracted, and the dentures already has soaked up almost 7k off someone elses currency.  Thank you to my Mom, and Stepfather are in order on that count.  Even with the expense there are other considerations that give pause in regards to implants. It's the state of development of being able to induce natural tooth regrowth. Researchers have already regrown full teeth in rats using stem cells, and laser treatments.  Knowing how close this is, perhaps 5 to 10 years out, perhaps even less.  All manor of other thoughts bounce around.  If I could get implants, knowing they are already obsolete are they are valid choice.  Would getting implants complicate regrowing the teeth when it becomes the mainstream.
   This combination of being a little to late to accept what many still few as perfectly workable solution. A little  early to take advantage of what will become the obvious norm. And me in a wait while loop, of my own devising.  Scrambling around to maintain enough currency flowing through while limiting social interaction to only what is required.  Generally if I do not have to leave the house I won't.  After having at least part-time employment for almost all of my adult life.  I now scramble to even keep up with basic living expenses.  Thanks to my housemate for helping me out when I got behind.  While it may often be my own projection reflected back at me. The effect is the same, an almost complete rejection of social interaction.  This overwhelming self consciousness is due in large part to knowing, I am responsible for it.  Through what has been dubbed mountain dew mouth, though I did mine much slower mainly with cola's. And even though by the time any problems showed, the insides of my teeth were already rotted. It was my own addictive style abuse of soda, I mean I did get to a point of 2 liters a day or more for years on end.  So while the physical aspects are enough to make most a bit self conscious.  The shame and guilt I feel at being the cause might be even worse.  Leaving me a virtual recluse, waiting for the breakthrough I know has already been made to save me from my own trap.

Jack
aka
PanseyBard

App: Idea Auto Surround Sound Setup

    Just a quick one today.  A friend started talking about wanting a 3d microphone. Which being a bit high at the time sent my thoughts racing down how a thing like that would work.  Quickly returning the though of triangulation of the sound using the know quantities of the speed of sound, and the distance between the microphones.  Those are all you need to calculate where a sound originates, Once here it was easy to imagine listening to your favorite performance as if you were sitting in the middle of it.  Being able to point to a location in the room and say thats where the guitarist is standing.  Of course the recording is only half the equation, and my natural tendency toward playing devils advocate was only to happy to point out. Without a surround sound system correctly set up the effect would be diluted, or dispelled completely.  Crap this would for sure limit the appeal, I mean getting the settings right is the biggest pain in the butt for surround sound systems. That was when it hit me.  Take that same concept, and reverse it.  Make a smart phone app that has access to the microphone, and the settings and playback on the surround sound system.  The app plays a series of tones through the speakers. So the phone tells the surround sound systems to play tones out of the speakers, knowing an approximate direction to expect it from. The app tracks the time between when it triggered the tone to play, and when the mic heard the tone.  With that information the app can get a location, and adjust the settings for that to be the sweet spot.

As an aside, Many economists despite mainstream reporting of economic recovery, continue to warn of pending bubble collapses.  Now for the most part these types of events have little impact on me directly.  That doesn't change my curiosity involving this pseudo science governing our lives.  The main question asked over and over is when.  Not that I believe you can figure out the exact when, but there is a way to figure out a last possible date.  The math for when the system itself can not function, This would give you a collapse by date.  Of course it would have to be run regularly as the date would shift as policies are enacted to stave off the inevitable.  There are some known qualities, and well understood correlations.  Things such as, there is a cap on the maximum interest rate the federal reserve can set, before the US government can no longer afford to borrow the money to keep running. My understanding is this is currently about 3%.  There is also a predicable point where if the currency velocity drops below the system grinds to a halt.  Even the slow down in currency velocity is predictable, as the wealth is concentrated in fewer hands, the velocity of course slows.  These would give a great start point for the math certain end date, almost like the doomsday clock.  The other side is psychological, as people lose faith, the systems breaks down.   This is going to be tied to large indicators, that may or may not be an accurate reflection of economic health,  This does not make them any less predictable.  Such as, with compounding interest, there will come a point when people are unable to pretend anymore.  A mass holy crap, that can never be repaid, related to the rate of the debt increase, which is speeding up.  You can get the psychological by looking where it has already happened.

As always make up your damn mind

Jack
aka
PanseyBard 

Python, Tweepy, and Twitter.....Oh My!!!!

      If you landed here from twitter chances are you clicked a link provided by a bot.  This is not uncommon, everyday the access to easy to use development tools becomes more widespread.  Having not written a line of code since the late 80's imagine my surprise at how quickly a site like  codecademy walk me through entry level python.  Six days after the whim to check out python found me looking for a entry level project to solidify my newly acquired knowledge, and expose how sorely it was lacking.  So why a twitter bot?  I do not take things overly seriously.  That being said, I respect that other people do.  In twitter there is from my perspective a unique venue of real world interaction on a scale normally reserved for a few, along with low impact.  Meaning I am unlikely to cause anyone harm while messing around and learning, So while this is not intended in anyway to be a tutorial. After 6 days of an online course, and 3 days of playing, I hardly qualify.  The bot code currently looks like this:

#imports modulesimport tweepy, time, sys, random

#assigns text file arguments to variablesargfile = str(sys.argv[1])

#enter the corresponding information from your Twitter application:
CONSUMER_KEY = '123456'#keep the quotes, replace this with your consumer keyCONSUMER_SECRET = '123456'#keep the quotes, replace this with your consumer secret keyACCESS_KEY = '123456'#keep the quotes, replace this with your access tokenACCESS_SECRET = '123456'#keep the quotes, replace this with your access token secretauth = tweepy.OAuthHandler(CONSUMER_KEY, CONSUMER_SECRET)
auth.set_access_token(ACCESS_KEY, ACCESS_SECRET)

#sets up tweepy apiapi = tweepy.API(auth)


def hourlytweet():
    filename=open(argfile,'r')
    f=filename.readlines()
    filename.close()
    api.update_status(status=f)
    print("hourly tweet posted")


def follow_unfollow():
    followers = api.followers_ids()
    friends = api.friends_ids()

    for z in followers:
        if z not in friends:
            api.create_friendship(z)

    for z in friends:
        if z not in followers:
            api.destroy_friendship(z)
    print("follow, unfollow done")

def search_retweet():
        search_terms= ['python','technology','raspberry pi','anonymous','twitter bots']
        g = random.choice(search_terms)
        results = api.search(q=g, count=1)
        for u in results:
            api.retweet(u.id)
            print("retweeted top result for", g)



x=1y=2
while x<y:
    localtime = time.asctime(time.localtime(time.time()))
    hour = int(localtime[11] + localtime[12])
    print('current hour is:',hour)
    if hour>5 and hour<24:
        hourlytweet()
        time.sleep(1700+random.randint(200,400))
        search_retweet()
    elif hour == 24:
        follow_unfollow()

    time.sleep(1700+random.randint(200,400))


It currently has the basic functions, between 6am, and midnight local time, it will tweet from a textfile, than wait roughly 30 min. Perform a search on a term selected randomly from a list, and retweet the top result. wait roughly 30min and start over. At midnight, it will check for new followers and follow them, then check for unfollowers, and unfollow them.  Next I'll be looking at adding some more functionality, perhaps checking for mentions, and favorites.  Maybe adding in an exit condition, other than a crash or keyboard break.

Thanks for reading
and always make up your own damn mind

Jack
aka
PanseyBard