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You rose from
some fiery Taiwanese factory
You’ve been baptized by fire.
You’ve flown, floated, glided
your way into my heart.
I love you PL
President Obama spoke to the 2010 graduating class of the U.S. Military Academy today:
Was just thinking about Battlestar Galactica. The struggle between human and cylon reminds me of the struggle between left and right brain.
What’s on your mind?
Any claim of synchronicity flies out the window when you’re watching literally hours worth of TED talks, but I’ve been thinking about the idea of syncing, generally, upon reading this and subsequently, watching this.
Formerly, Stephen Hawking refers to the theoretical feedback loop that could present itself in a wormhole, similar to what happens to sound when there is feedback from an amplifier. Latterly, mathematician Steven Strogatz and Architect Carlo Ratti discuss the implications of syncing physically, at one point implicating the unforeseen consequences of feedback loops in complex systems (footage of the London Millennium Bridge “synchronization” here, at 14:30). Strogatz: “You may be opening a Pandora’s Box for architecture when you let people feedback on the built environment.”
He does give caveat to the slight possibility that really, really cool things could happen if we fed back…
And I don’t think it requires a “built environment”.
Hawking uses feedback to caution against relying on wormholes for time travel. Forget these elusive wormholes, he says! He goes on to describe a more straightforward method (again, read the article, here).
But what if we all just forgot about where we were for a minute in meditation (I think it would literally require everyone and it might require more than a minute, as people tend to cough and sneeze and such)? I think the answer to that and similar questions will make for some great time travel.
These teeth ain’t gettin’ no whiter.
This spine ain’t gettin’ no straighter.
My tangental reality,
on it’s orbit has
passed y’all by.
Goodbye.
The vastness of space
seems warmer.
Damned body is breaking me.
Mind trapped under it’s wreckage.
I’ve got a while before
I can’t hide my self-inflicted age.
I’m meditating on new cells.
I’m anticipating stem cells.
Not gonna burn out this time.
I’m coming back around.
I’ll get momentum
as soon as your gravity
releases me.
I’ve realized the walls in the United States exist between sexists and feminists and between racists and minorities.
The outcome of our current political shift will require parties interested in segregation, discrimination and erecting ACTUAL Berlin-stlye walls along the Mexian-American border to recognize the inevitability of equilibrium. It doesn’t have to be painful for the sexists and the racists to concede their fall from power.
There will be no “takeover”. There doesn’t have to be bloody revolution. Just let the meek have a piece of your pie.
Put down your guns. We won’t tell God what you’ve done to the poor and to women and minorites. We’ll let all of that go. We’re peaceful people just trying to take part in what you’ve left us of the American Dream.
This is not a footnoted history piece. At worst, it’s a tall tale with truthiness. But I’m not the only one who’s told it. If you want facts, Wiki Berlin Wall. The following is my Berlin Wall story:
Ronald Reagan didn’t end the Cold War. By some accounts, the Berlin Wall fell because it just wanted to. That is to say, people demanded it. Nowhere was this more evident than on the night of November 9, 1989 in Berlin.
By that time, East Germans had already caught wind of relaxed travel restrictions in Hungary, and so many clever Easterners attended Borderline “Biergaerten (glorified picnics)”, and so tens of thousands of East Germans took the opportunity to dine and then dash into the West.
East German Parliament, in an effort to regain popular support from it’s caged citizenry, passed measures loosening (slightly) travel restrictions for East Germans. They felt they had thrown the masses a good, meaty bone and so they went on vacation (presumably, travel restrictions didn’t apply to government dignitaries).
That night, the State-controlled radio DJ and East German political spokesman, Günter Schabowski, announced the Parliamentary decision as he received it.
Only, one small detail was omitted from policy: ab wann (when do these relaxed laws go into effect)?
So he said, “ab sofort (effective immediately).” And the ground swelled.
Without thousands of media outlets to choose from, most citizens were tuned in to that single broadcast. With the joyous news of an open border, thousands flocked to the wall. Guards stationed there that night were overwhelmed, unable to reach any of the vacationing ruling class. They did what any outnumbered guard might do in the face of mob rule: they gave the mob what it wanted. They tore down the wall.
And so can we.