FAMILY OF BREATH

Jon Kabat-Zinn

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 23:44:00 +0000

Jon Kabat-Zinn leads a session on Mindfulness at Google.

Ornamism 2

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 16:11:00 +0000

http://incubator.quasimondo.com/processing/ornamism2.php

100% All American Man Beef

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:00:00 +0000

Derek . SMALL ROOM : Morning Half-Eaten

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 07:21:00 +0000

Being Online all day Teaches me how to Share Things and Be Natural.

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 07:10:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/WianTreetin

Chess champion Bobby Fischer dies

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:00:00 +0000

Icelandic TV and radio announced today that chess playing genius Bobby Fischer has died at the age of 64,

Information on the cause of death has not yet been released.

During his life Fischer was accused of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism (despite being born in the US and being of Jewish descent). He was granted Icelandic citizenship in 2005.

In the immediate aftermath of the September 11 2001 attacks on America, Bobby Fischer was a rare western voice speaking off-message. Live on Filipino radio he said.......

"This is all wonderful news, I applaud the act. The US and Israel have been slaughtering the Palestinians, just slaughtering them, for years. Robbing them and slaughtering them. Nobody gave a shit. Now it's coming back to the US. Fuck the US. I want to see the US wiped out. Death to the US."

archive....

Chess Boxing

http://site.wcbo.org/

the ultimate challenge for both the body and the mind

STOCKHAUSEN 1928-2007

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:08:00 +0000

Karlheinz Stockhausen has died at the age of 79

http://www.stockhausen.org/

SARAH SZE

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:09:00 +0000

http://www.sarahsze.com/

(via http://www.evolvehappy.blogspot.com/ via http://www.flickr.com/photos/bmap/)

Jamie Whyte on "Drugs"

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 17:57:00 +0000

".........The real question is not whether drug use has costs. Every activity has. The question is whether these costs exceed the benefits of drug use. It is easy to show that they do not, but we should first recognise what the main benefit is. This should be obvious but, for some reason, nobody involved in “the drugs debate” ever mentions it. The main benefit of taking drugs is that it is pleasurable. In fact, it can be incredibly pleasurable. That is why people do it."

"And also why it is good for them. Drug users are simply people for whom the pleasure outweighs the risk of death, illness, addiction and all the rest. In other words, they are people for whom the benefits of drug use exceed the costs. They wouldn’t be drug users otherwise. The same is not true of everyone. Some value health more and pleasure less. For them, drug taking would deliver a net loss. Fine: these people would not take drugs even if they were legal."

".........legislators systematically discount the benefits of drugs. It is not enough that people value something. To count it as a benefit, our betters in Westminster must deem it worthwhile. And they do not consider getting high to be worthwhile."

"It is not concern for our welfare that explains the illegality of drug use. It is bigotry."

(Jamie Whyte January 2, 2006 in the Times)

plus a report from march 2007:

Illegal drugs can be harmless, report says

a wide-ranging two-year study of Britain's drug laws concluded today that "The evidence suggests that a majority of people who use drugs are able to use them without harming themselves or others. They are able, in that sense, to 'manage' their drug use ... The harmless use of illegal drugs is thus possible, indeed common,"

Describing the Misuse of Drugs Act as unwieldy and inflexible, the report says: "It sends people to prison who should not be there. It forces people into treatment who do not need it"

"Drugs policy should, like our policy on alcohol and tobacco, seek to regulate use and prevent harm rather than to prohibit use altogether,"

PR and BLOGS

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 17:23:00 +0000

A PR man says.....

"Our job is to get even "challenging" people like you to write, say and/or do what our clients and companies want -- of your own volition -- and not even realize that you're doing it. If you are telling us that you only want information from people whose views you like and trust, then we'll just reach you through them and you'll never be the wiser."

(a comment on Tom Coates' "This is not a brothel..." over on flickr)

and an extract from a post by Tom Coates on the subject...

"you'd be surprised the pressure that you can receive to deform what you write to serve other people's best interests. And it needs to be said, quite apart from my own personal irritation with these people, they are actively trying every day to commandeer the conversations that you are having out there by fair means or foul to serve their needs more effectively. They do it by offering perks, holding or withholding access to people or things and by making people feel privileged by giving them gifts or treats."

GERMAN GOVERNMENT'S TROJAN SPYWARE

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 11:48:00 +0000

A bbc report says that the "German government plans to spy on Terror Suspects by deploying malicious e-mails."

"The e-mails would contain Trojans - software that secretly installs itself on suspects' computers, allowing agents to search the hard drives."

"The measure would form part of a new anti-terrorism bill."

What next, Trojans that plant evidence?

LINK CLUSTER

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:31:00 +0000

on being sane in insane places (pdf)

infiltration
the surveillance camera players
no border

the milgram experiment

space hi-jackers
billboard subversion and destruction
reporters without borders

the stanford prison experiment

Spanish Civil War

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:29:00 +0000

posters from the Spanish Civil War

... originally posted Family Of Breath 4 aug 2005 ...

Terrorists, Victims and Society

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:24:00 +0000

there is no "psychology of the terrorist,"

there is only the psychology of the Human that plays out in a multitude of ways.

..."Terrorists, Victims and Society" edited by Andrew Silke

amazon.co.uk
amazon.com

... originally posted Family Of Breath 2 aug 2005 ...

MANY

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:20:00 +0000

In 2004 the bbc told us that there's a tribe living in a remote part of Brazil's Amazon rainforest which has no words for numbers beyond two.

The Piraha use "one" to mean one or roughly one, two means two, while any larger number is just "many".

... originally posted Family Of Breath 22 aug 2004 ...

Disappearing Languages

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:14:00 +0000

"Of the 6,000 languages still on Earth, 90 percent could be gone by 2100."

"Languages are becoming extinct at twice the rate of endangered mammals and four times the rate of endangered birds."

Disappearing Languages

...originally posted Family Of Breath 6 aug 2004 ...

Playing Dead

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:05:00 +0000

playing dead

...originally posted Family Of Breath 30 aug 2003 ...

HOUSE GYMNASTICS

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:03:00 +0000

housegymnastics

...originally posted Family Of Breath 22 aug 2003 ...

animation

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:56:00 +0000

boyshit

...originally posted Family Of Breath 21 aug 2003 ...

Notes and thoughts re Huxley's Brave New World

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:31:00 +0000

"when the 5th marquess of lansdowne wrote to the times suggesting that the 1st world war should be concluded with a compromise, as most wars of the 18th century had been, the editor refused to print it."
(....Aldous Huxley, in his 1946 revised foreword to Brave new world)

ilya ehrenburg said "dadaism has more to do with the battle of the somme, with uprisings and putsches....than with what we usually consider art."
Folowing the war, in the 1920s and 30s, it was taken for granted that art has a social content and that artists ought to work for social change. Dada, in essence, was revolt against war. None of those artists could bring themselves to work for the rebuilding of a society that had proven itself so morally bankrupt and they rejected all accepted values because those values had all succumbed to rabid militarism.

"O brave new world that has such people in it."
Round pegs in Square holes tend to have dangerous thoughts about the social system and to infect others with their discontents.
THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS
THE PROBLEM OF MAKING PEOPLE LOVE THEIR SERVITUDE.

"A really efficient state would be one in which the all powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of Slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. Ensuring that enough people love it is the task assigned to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors, and schoolteachers."
(...Aldous Huxley, in his 1946 revised foreword to Brave new world)

And.....

Great is the truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.

Embedded Journalism
The US defence department's chief spokesperson, Victoria Clarke, has said the Pentagon was very happy with the outcome of the "embedding" of some 700 journalists with US military units during the war in Iraq. During a conference on 17 June 2003 on news coverage during the war, she said people appreciated the embedding and would like to do it again. She added that more journalists should be brought into this process next time, especially foreign journalists.
( via reporters without borders )

and how many journalists and camera people etc have the americans killed so far?

plus....

the perpetuation of militarism:
The masses as cannon fodder
and the importance of families to produce more cannon fodder and to colonise empty or conquered territories.

...originally posted Family Of Breath 12 aug 2003 ...

Which Book

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:24:00 +0000

which book

A site that recommends books (fiction and poetry published since 1995) based on you choosing from a sliding scale of descriptions such as from.....

"safe to disturbing",
"beautiful to disgusting",
"optimistic to bleak", etc.

It then produces a list of books that match your criteria with short reader critiques for you to choose from

... originally posted Family Of Breath 8 Aug 2003 ...

LINK CLUSTER

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:49:00 +0000

http://www.globalideasbank.org/
http://www.anxietyculture.com/
http://www.theplayethic.com/

http://www.greyworld.org/
http://crnano.typepad.com/crnblog/
http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/

http://www.politicalgraphics.org/
http://www.tenbyten.net/actions.html
http://www.actsofkindness.org/

PHOTO FRIDAY

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:17:00 +0000

photofriday.com

a different challenge theme every friday

...originally posted Family Of Breath 3 aug 2003...

ATTENTION TO DETAIL

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:58:00 +0000

doorknobs and handles

every door or drawer knob, handle, or latch he touched from the time he awoke on Thursday, June 3rd until he went to bed on Friday, June 4th.

eat22

11mar2001-11mar2002 Ellie Harrison documents everything she eats.

golberg family (1976 - present)

Diego Golberg and family sit down on June 17 for a family ritual.

...originally posted Family Of Breath 3 aug 2003...

c71123.com

noreply@blogger.com (russell higgs) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:52:00 +0000

c71123

...originally posted Family Of Breath 3 aug 2003...